The Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, today crowned Afaf Sherif from Palestine, the champion of the Arab Reading Challenge, ARC.

Al Iman School – Girls sector, in Bahrain, won the best school award, and the US$1 million prize. Houriya Al Thil from Morocco won the most distinguished supervisor award, along with a US$100,000 prize. The award seeks to honour the teachers and supervisors who dedicate their time to support and guide students in their endeavour to learn and expand their horizons Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said, "We invite all Arab students across the world to join us and to compete in ARC next year; we want to bring Arabs together in the spirit of education and competition. ARC has revealed the passion that young Arabs have for knowledge; they are the ones who will build our future on the solid pillars of culture and intellect. I am proud of the seven million participants, who have shown us that we are on the right path to civilisation. The real winner today is the Arab world."

"Participation in the Arab Reading Challenge is not geographically limited, and is open to any Arab who wants to compete, read in Arabic, and develop a strong intellect. Reading is the strongest foundation for great civilisations, built on the values of tolerance, openness and balance. ARC is one of many initiatives we have launched to support knowledge-based programmes that touch over 10 million people each year," he concluded.

Afaf Sharif, who won the grand prize of US$150,000, was among the top five ARC 2017 finalists. She won over the votes of the audience and judges by answering the final questions with confidence, clarity and eloquence. The five finalists made it to the closing ceremony after a round of qualifying examinations which took place in Dubai over the last two days.

At the ceremony, a specialised jury asked finalists several questions, based on which they were able to display their competence, and sway the audience to vote for them in real-time. The jury members were Bilal Al Badoor, Badrya Al Bishr, and the winner of the ARC distinguished teacher award in 2016, Hanan Al Hroob.

Incentives and awards for ARC 2017 amounted to a total of over US$3 million, dedicated to the winners as well as the competition finalists.

Over 7.4 million students from 41,000 schools in 25 countries around the world, supported by 75,000 supervisors and 1,500 arbitrators, participated in ARC this year, reading altogether over 200 million books.