A total of 114 distinguished winners from the education sector, with 95 winning the local competitions and 19 winning the GCC competitions, won the 22nd cycle of the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance award.
DUBAI, (Pakistan Point News - 09th Mar, 2020) A total of 114 distinguished winners from the education sector, with 95 winning the local competitions and 19 winning the GCC competitions, won the 22nd cycle of the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance award.
The winners were announced by the board of Trustees meeting of the Foundation chaired by Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education. The winners will be honoured at the end of April 2020 at the closing awards ceremony to be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
The 22nd cycle of the award received 420 entries, which were evaluated by 53 judging committees during the period between December 2019 and February 2020. The committees comprised six committee chairs for the following categories: Distinguished Student, Distinguished Teacher, Highly Distinguished Teacher, Distinguished school, Distinguished Family, Distinguished Educator, Best Scientific Innovation, Best Implemented Project, and Education Supporting Institutions.
Dr. Jamal Mohammed Al Mehairi, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Secretary-General of the Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance, said, "With the support of the leadership and the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, the award continues its pursuit to establish innovation as a key pillar for a robust national foundation that will define a bright future for the coming generations."
Dr. Sulaiman Al Ansari, CEO of the Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance, said, "Through the years, the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance has witnessed several developments on all fronts including opening the door for participation, presentation and judgement, and has also expanded its footprint with participation from a number of international organisations concerned with education, foremost of which is the UNESCO."
Dr. Ali Saeed Al-Kaabi, President of Judging Committees, said, "The current cycle witnessed the participation of prominent experts from the region and the world in the judgement committees, who worked as per the highest international standards in assessing entries and selecting the best ones to contribute to a positive change in the educational systems locally, regionally and internationally."
The current cycle saw the adoption of electronic systems for all the local categories, two winners in the category of "Institutions Supporting Education", including Abu Dhabi Police for tackling the crime scene management and the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority. In the GCC categories, electronic systems were applied for the first time and interviews for the "Distinguished Student" category were conducted via Skype. About the level of participation, the Board of Trustees indicated that the 22nd cycle witnessed the participation of 336 participants in the local awards, 84 in the GCC awards, and 113 in the Arab awards.
As for the Hamdan-UNESCO Award for Rewarding Distinguished Practices and Efforts to Improve Teachers’ Performance, Dr. Khalifa Ali Al Suwaidi, Member of the Board of Trustees of Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance and Technical consultant at the Award, indicated a 27 percent increase in the number of participants in the current cycle.
The entries recorded this year were 193 and the winners will be honoured next October at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France.
On a separate note, Al-Suwaidi explained that the first session of this year’s Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum – ISESCO prize saw the participation of 44 participants from 18 different countries, with three winning institutions, which will be honoured next April at the headquarters of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in Rabat, Morocco.
The award was judged in Dubai by an international three-member panel. It is given to three winners every two years, and each individual award is valued at US$100,000.
The current cycle of the award was won by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud International Foundation for Charity and Humanitarian Deeds for building 172 multi-purpose model schools by the Islamic Development Bank in Bangladesh, the schools' project in the Emirati-Jordanian camp, in addition to the inception of 495 schools around the world by the Emirates Red Crescent Authority. Other winners included the Faculty of Information Technology at Birzeit University and Munib R. Masri Development Foundation for educational projects developed in Palestine and other countries.
