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Rabat – Sarah El-Daif, a 16-years-old Moroccan girl, has ranked second in the 2020 Arab Reading Challenge, outperforming 21 million participants from 52 countries.
El-Daif qualified for the final round of the competition with four other competitors from Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.
Before qualifying to the finals, each participant undergoes a series of elimination stages in the competition: educational institutions level, district level, national and regional levels to reach the final phase at the international level.
El-Daif competed against thousands of participants in Morocco and was chosen from among 16 semi-finalists.
She came second behind Abdallah Abou Khalaf from Jordan.
She is currently studying in the second-year of the baccalaureate in physical sciences at Ibn Soulaiman Arroudani high school in Taroudant.
A press release from Morocco’s Ministry of Education highlights the outstanding number of Moroccan participants in this event, noting that in the fifth year there were more participants than ever, increasing from 511 to 9,726 establishments.
Meanwhile, the number of Moroccan students taking part in the event increased from 253,789 in 2015 to 1,584,825 this year.
The award ceremony was held online on September 20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ceremony was also highlighted by a tribute paid to Professor Khalid Labkiri, President of the Regional Center for Documentation, Amination and Educational Production at the Regional Academy of Education and Training (AREF) in Dakhla Wadi Al-Dhahab.
Labkiri was recognized for his capacity in supervising participants from the Souss-Massa region in the qualifying rounds of the competition as well as those from the Saada school in Taza during the final phase.
Morocco has been participating in the Arab Reading Challenge organized by the United Arab Emirates since 2015.
The Arab Reading challenge aims to promote reading among young Arabs across the globe, rewarding them with attractive prizes and grants for reading about 50 million books.
Recall that in 2018, the Moroccan student Maryem Amjoun had won the title of champion of the Arab Reading Challenge, making it the youngest finalist to beat 10,5 million participants.
As of this year, the statement noted that 375,146 Moroccan students completed the reading challenge and provided summaries for 50 books each.
