The National Reading Month activities were launched yesterday at the state level, in implementation of the Cabinet’s decision, which set March for each year as a month for reading.

The Ministry of Culture and Community Development chose the slogan of “the pleasure of reading” for the month of reading this year, as it seeks to motivate and encourage the various authorities in the country to launch and organize initiatives and events for reading and link them to pleasure, and to adopt targeted initiatives that contribute to enhancing the value and role of reading as a source of pleasure that the reader feels, Establishing it is an important element in the lives of the UAE community.

The month of reading is an annual occasion during which various institutions, whether governmental or private or educational and cultural institutions, participate through a number of initiatives and programs that contribute to building a readership armed with knowledge and knowledge, capable of leading the development process in the country.

The fifth of the month of December 2015 represents a distinct day for science and reading locally, when the Cabinet and directives of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, approved the year 2016 for the year of reading, as the Council issued directives to start preparing an integrated national framework for the graduation of a reader generation, and to consolidate The country is the capital of content, culture and knowledge.

On May 3, 2016, constituted an important historic turning point in the process of supporting reading, as he directed His Highness the President of the State to start legislative measures to prepare a law for reading in the country under the name of “Reading Law”.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has adopted the National Reading Strategy until 2026, which includes 30 major national trends in the sectors of education, health, culture, community development, media and content.

It has also been announced that the Cabinet will allocate one month each year for reading, distribute a knowledge bag to all citizens born in the UAE, with the aim of enriching the national reading content, and review publishing policies in the country to promote and support citizen publishers. In an initiative considered the first in the world, His Highness, on October 31, 2016, issued the first law of its kind for reading that sets legislative frameworks, executive programs and specific government responsibilities to establish the value of reading in the country in a sustainable way, in an unprecedented cultural and legislative initiative in the region, With the aim of supporting the development of human capital, contributing to building mental and cognitive abilities, supporting national intellectual production, and building knowledge societies in the country.

The law acquires exceptional importance, as it came comprehensive at the national level, highlighting the interest of the state and its leadership in human development in all aspects, and its endeavor to develop the cultural assets of its citizens, in a manner that guarantees preparation and qualification of generations capable of establishing an Emirati intellectual heritage that can be developed and built upon, and the law also sets binding frameworks For all government agencies in the educational, societal, media and cultural sectors, to establish reading among all groups of society in different age groups.

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Reading law in the Emirates is a pioneer in more than one level, as it makes reading a fixed right and available for everyone to be devoted from birth, by providing three knowledge bags that cover the needs of the child from infancy to four years of age, at the rate of one bag every two years.

- In an initiative considered the first in the world, the UAE issued the first reading law in 2016.

The National Reading Strategy to 2026, which includes 30 major approaches.