Abu dhabi: The Kalima School Reading Club programme at the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC) is advancing its 2026 cultural and knowledge agenda, in partnership with the Emirates Schools Establishment (ESE), to increase the number of Abu Dhabi school students engaged in its activities. This initiative is part of the club's second phase of the Community Campaign to Promote Sustainable Reading, aiming to foster a reading culture among students and make it a lasting habit, in line with the UAE's declaration of 2026 as the 'Year of Family'.
According to Emirates News Agency, the Club's operational plan aims to involve 40 schools in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, with the goal of eventually covering most schools across the Emirate. The programme is part of the Community Campaign to Promote Sustainable Reading, operating on the premise that sustainable reading begins at school, extends to families, and contributes to a supportive knowledge environment. This enhances children's connection to the Arabic language and develops their cultural and intellectual awareness early on.
The ALC is committed to the National Policy for Reading and aligns its efforts with the UAE's vision of equipping future generations with necessary skills, as outlined in the UAE Centennial Plan 2071, which aims to establish a knowledge-based economy. Since its inception, the programme has seen active participation from students through panel discussions and interactive activities based on publications from the Kalima Project for Translation, focusing on enhancing comprehension and analytical skills.
The programme uses texts selected for age and cognitive differences, providing suitable content for students' abilities. This initiative is part of an ecosystem led by ALC, which includes BAREC (Balanced Arabic Readability Evaluation Corpus), the first Arab project to determine readability levels in Arabic texts by age. BAREC, supported by AI tools, helps in guided reading for children and young adults and supports authors, publishers, teachers, and families in selecting appropriate materials.
The BAREC project is a collaboration between the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, New York University Abu Dhabi, and Zayed University, supporting scientific research in Arabic computational linguistics and offering an open-source linguistic corpus for linguists and data scientists.