The Federal National Council discusses the government’s policy in enhancing the role and status of the Arabic language

The Education, Culture, Youth, Sports and Media Affairs Committee of the Federal National Council, during its meeting today at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Council in Dubai, headed by Dr. Adnan Hamad Al Hammadi, Chairman of the Committee, continued to discuss the issue of the government’s policy in enhancing the role and status of the Arabic language as the official language of the state, and an essential component of the national identity. In the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Culture, the Emirates Media Council, and the Office of Artificial and Economic Intelligence and Remote Work Applications.

The meeting was attended by Dr. Maryam Obaid Al-Badawi, rapporteur of the committee, and members Humaid Ahmed Al-Tayer, Aisha Khamis Al-Dhanhani, and Dr. Moza Mohammed Al-Shehhi, members of the Federal National Council.

During the meeting with the Ministry of Education, in the presence of Amna Al Saleh, Acting Executive Director of the Evaluation and Curricula Sector, the committee discussed the Arabic language curricula and their suitability to the needs of students and their different abilities in grammar, rhetoric, and morphology, and the contribution of the curricula to building language skills to improve students’ results in national and international tests. The Ministry’s mechanism for linking the stages of general and higher education, and unifying efforts in the “Emirati School”, to ensure the continuity of promoting the Arabic language from early childhood until university, and the Ministry’s efforts to provide a balance between teaching the Arabic language and learning foreign languages, in addition to To the Ministry’s plans to invest technology and innovation in the educational process to develop students’ reading, writing and interaction skills in the Arabic language, and the digital platforms or applications provided by the Ministry to encourage students to read in an interactive manner to support creative writing with immediate feedback on spelling and grammar.

It also discussed training programs for using modern technology in teaching the Arabic language, the extent of the readiness of teachers and specialists to apply digital assessment tools and artificial intelligence in measuring students’ language skills since early childhood, special programs and activities to support students with special educational needs or who are linguistically challenged, and the mechanism adopted by the Ministry. To raise the linguistic proficiency of students with advanced skills in the Arabic language, and initiatives to employ social media platforms to attract students’ attention and activate their participation in learning the Arabic language.

During the committee’s meeting with the Ministry of Economy, in the presence of Her Excellency Dr. Maria Hanif Al-Qassim, Assistant Undersecretary for the Economic Studies and Policies Sector, the policies that the Ministry is implementing to encourage emerging companies and small and medium enterprises that provide content or services in the Arabic language were discussed, and the challenges facing the spread of the Arabic language in management. And the development of small and medium enterprises, and how to increase awareness of the importance of using them in all aspects of business management, and their role in enhancing the position of creative industries that rely on the Arabic language among future economic sectors, and addressing the digital platforms and services provided by the Ministry to stimulate the production of economic knowledge, and initiatives. Which it provides in the Arabic language to support entrepreneurs, and the policies it follows to ensure the commitment of international investors to deal in the Arabic language within the Emirates, and the Ministry’s monitoring of the extent of companies’ commitment to using the Arabic language in contracts and documents, and the most prominent challenges facing companies in implementing the requirements of the Arabic language, and its digital plans in the Arabic language to stimulate production. Economic knowledge, legal controls that regulate the use of the language in tourist establishments, initiatives to enhance the tourism experience in the Arabic language, and smart applications created in the Arabic language to support the tourism sector.

In the presence of Shatha Amin Al-Mulla, Assistant Undersecretary for the National Identity and Arts Sector in the Ministry of Culture, the committee discussed the legislative system to promote the Arabic language, the projects and strategies directed to support the translation sector in the country, the volume of actual translation of Arabic books into other languages, and the challenges it faces in implementing translation projects. To encourage young people to participate in these projects, how to measure their impact in enhancing the presence of the Arabic language among other languages, and the role that modern technology plays in developing and developing the translation movement.

The committee discussed the initiatives and projects implemented by the Ministry in the field of specialized Arabic encyclopedias, and the challenges it faces in reliable and specialized Arabic encyclopedia projects, in addition to plans and initiatives to invest in technology to create and update Arabic scientific encyclopedias, and the extent to which Emirati researchers contribute to preparing reliable scientific content to be added to Arabic encyclopedias. He presented the current cooperation between the Ministry and cultural and educational institutions in the country in the field of supporting encyclopedias, and using artificial intelligence to improve the quality of encyclopedias’ content, and its plans to benefit from Artificial intelligence techniques accelerate the process of producing Arabic digital content.

In the presence of Maitha Al Suwaidi, Executive Director of the Media Strategy and Policies Sector at the Emirates Media Council, the committee discussed the system of legislation and decisions related to enhancing the presence of the Arabic language in the media, the media policies supervised by the Council to ensure strengthening the status of the Arabic language and highlighting national identity, and the most important projects and initiatives directed at supporting the language. Arabic in various media outlets, and the Council’s plans towards building a partnership between the media sector in the country and scientific research centers in the humanitarian, linguistic and scientific disciplines to invest in media discourse, and reviewing the plans of the Emirates Council For the media in developing the language skills of media professionals to provide effective media content.

In the presence of Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Mahmoud, Director of the Artificial Intelligence Department in the Office of Artificial and Economic Intelligence and Remote Work Applications, the committee discussed the initiatives and projects implemented by the office to enhance the presence of Arabic digital content in the technical space, the policies adopted by the government to enhance the uses of artificial intelligence in the Arabic language, and the role of the office in developing… Digital models and applications in the Arabic language, how to improve the quality of data in the Arabic language for artificial intelligence applications, mechanisms that can contribute to enhancing the digital presence of the Arabic language and raising the level of content quality, and the challenges facing the development of artificial intelligence technologies directed in the Arabic language, He highlighted the most prominent cooperative projects between the government and private sectors in the field of developing artificial intelligence projects to reflect the Emirati national identity, and the office’s initiatives in benefiting from the experiences of technical companies based in the UAE, to enhance the technical presence of the Arabic language.