ABU DHABI // The 35 winners of the eighth annual Khalifa Award for Education will be honoured in a ceremony at Emirates Palace Hotel in the capital on April 14.
Juma Al Majid, chairman of the Juma Al Majid Centre for Culture and Heritage, was named Educational Personality of the Year in recognition of his educational and cultural achievements, state news agency Wam reported.
An active member of many Arab and international cultural foundations, including the Arab Thought Foundation in Beirut and the advisory committee of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, Mr Al Majid has established schools, colleges and charities.
Amal Al Afifi, the award’s secretary general, said the winners were chosen from 500 applicants – including 304 from the UAE and 196 from the Arab world – entered in one of 11 categories. Mrs Al Afifi said 26 of the winners were from the UAE.
The 2014-2015 edition of the award was launched under the theme “Distinguish Yourself, You Deserve Honour”.
The award aims to promote the education sector in the UAE and the Arab world by encouraging and motivating creative and outstanding individuals working in the field through recognition.
The Khalifa Award’s goals include highlighting and supporting the status of those working in all educational fields, contributing in providing a modern educational environment that encourages innovation, stimulating UAE citizens to aspire to become teachers, and encouraging talented educators to design and apply educational projects and programmes.
The award is also intended to help strengthen the linguistic identity of the UAE by adopting Arabic as the official language.
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