School children across the Middle East could soon be watching a science lesson narrated by Dubai's leaders after they lent their voices to a regionwide programme on Monday.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, took to the recording booths to help record educational videos for school children in Arabic.
The translation challenge project, announced last year, aims to re-produce 5,000 videos for schools across the Middle East and North Africa.
“I followed up today on the final stages of the translation challenge project, which aims to re-produce 5,000 educational videos in Arabic that suit all education levels and provide them for free to all Arab students, with the participation of volunteers from 15 Arab countries,” said Sheikh Mohammed on his official Twitter account.
تابعت اليوم مراحل الإنجاز في مشروع تحدي الترجمة الذي يهدف لتعريب وإنتاج 5000 فيديو تعليمي لكافة مراحل التعليم وتوفيرها مجانا لكافة الطلاب العرب وذلك بمشاركة متطوعين من 15 دولة عربية pic.twitter.com/c9ztkvAB5Y
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) April 2, 2018
This came during a visit to the Translation Factory where he followed the video production stages, from the selection of videos, translation of content, auditing and the process of adding audio to the videos.
“I volunteered to record an educational lesson in the challenge, and our goal is to provide 5,000 lessons in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and science, ..”, he said.
تطوعت بتسجيل درس تعليمي ضمن التحدي، وهدفنا توفير 5000 حصة في مواد الرياضيات والفيزياء والكيمياء والأحياء والعلوم ، الرياضيات والعلوم في المدارس العربية مفتاح لاستئناف الحضارة العربية pic.twitter.com/ZlbIxQuIQP
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) April 2, 2018
“Translation is one of the renaissance foundations and opens doors to accommodate all kinds of knowledge and science, and e-learning will be the fastest way to bridge the educational gap in our Arab countries.”
الترجمة أساس من أسس النهضة وتفتح الأبواب لاستيعاب كل أنواع المعارف والعلوم، والتعليم الالكتروني سيكون الطريق الأسرع لردم الفجوة التعليمية في وطننا العربي pic.twitter.com/Z7YhZBYcjP
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) April 2, 2018
1,500 videos have already been completed, with more than 300 volunteers working on a daily basis to complete the project.
The initiative follows the launch of the Arab Reading Challenge two years ago that sought to encourage reading and donated and purchased millions of books for schools in the Arab world.