Khalifa Award for Education: Family is the Key for Distinction in Education
Amal Afifi: One of our main missions is to shed light on the distinguished families that constitute a big part of the society in the United Arab Emirates.
Jamila Khanji: Family is the base of distinction of its members , educationally, ethically and socially.
Ahmad Al Neyadi: The overall inclusive raising up of family members is the key to the distinction of the family in education and sustainable development.
Fahd Al Hassani’s Family: Discovering and developing the skills and hobbies of the family members is the main factor for distinction of the family.
Abu Dhabi: September 24, 2020
The General Secretariat of Khalifa Award for Education confirmed the importance of the role of the family in the character- building of a students who take pride in their homeland, in all its traditions, culture and achievements. The Secretariat further assures that the United Arab Emirates has set a unique model in founding and supporting the educated and aspirant family that prepares its members to distinction and leadership.
The Secretariat also explained that adding the category of the “Distinguished Emarati Family” to the other awards is a true reflection of the objective of the wise leadership in shedding light on the importance of the innovation distinctive Emarati families that have offered creative and innovative support for their family members , educationally, socially and professionally. To this, the Award annually and in different cycles, honors some of these families that are considered a major factor of local educational development.
This came during the virtual open meeting organized by the General Secretariat of the Award under the title: “ The Emarati Family is the Key to Distinction”, administered by Dr. Jamila al Khanji, member of the Award Executive Committee and reflected upon by Ahmad Musbeh Khalifa Al Neyadi and Fahd Khalfan Al Hassani’s family, the latter’s sharing their own experiences in this regard.
Amal Afifi, General Secretary to the Award, expressed that the mission of the award in reinforcing distinction extends from the educational field, inclusive of all its institutions, to the family that is considered the essence and main drive in building the distinctive society and its educational development. Al Afifi added that the importance of the family in building a distinctive society was the main drive for the award to give importance to the distinguished Emarati families, distributed along all the regions of our society, and contributing in building up family members who are equipped with standard education and innovative leadership skills in all fields. Such families, with their rich unique experiences and educational and social innovations represent a bridge of distinguished raise up and are, no doubt, one among the important categories that the Award supports.
Dr. Jamila Al Khanji, commencing the symposium, pointed out the interest and support extended by the wise leadership to founding the Emarati families on solid base that allows it to effectively contribute to the society. Such symposium, she added, sets opportunities to various Emarati families to share experiences on this distinctive level and to be exposed to the mechanisms of such distinction in the society.
The category of “ The Emarati Distinguished Family”, Al Khanji expressed, is an added value to the Award in regard of founding a sustainable distinctive system in our homeland, a category that the Award highly supports, for belief that the family is the most important and profound social institution that models the family member and that has always been given the ultimate importance in all specialized studies, especially in regard to modeling the character and behavior of a child within a healthy relationship between both parents, between parents and children and among children themselves. Such relationships should all be based on mutual respect, understanding, trust and love as a base to effective planning for the future of the children as per the abilities and interests of each, to secure distinction as a way of life for the concerned family.
In support to this, Mr. Ahmad Al Neyadi shared his family’s experience that allowed the family to win the Award for this category in the former cycle: “ I work as in the Development of Quality Education at the Ministry of Education and I am honored to have participated in this category and given the chance to share social, educational and ethical family practices that contribute in the development of family relations that are the profound foundations of our country for sustainable distinction. It is inclusive comprehensive character-building that I practice in my relationship with my family members, an approach that constitute education, health, character build up and social belonging, implanted through flexibility and agreement among family members to design plans and objectives and work hand in hand towards achieving them. I keep a logical balance between my own work and my family through proper planning, time investment and investment of my educational and work experience. This is what I exactly aim to reinforce in my own children as a sustainable value added to their lives in particular and a contribution to their own country in general.”
On the same topic, Al Neyadi’s family shared their exclusive family experience during their participation in the previous cycle expressing their concern to build up a generation that possesses awareness to develop abilities and skills which increase creativity and innovation side to side to the our Islamic notions and connotations. Th Neyadi family consist of six members: The parents, hiyam 10 years, Shouq 7 years, Aisha 6 years and Khalfan 2 years old. The children, though very young in age, have attained a lot of awards locally and internationally as an outcome to the family’s encouragement in developing their hobbies and skills as well as preparing them to participate in social and volunteer work that proves that nothing is impossible and that when there is a will, there sure is a way!
The session ended with an open discussion between the speakers and the attending audience that further stressed skills an mechanisms that are important for the distinction of a family and the strategies to motivate the distinctive education among all families, that will , in return, benefit the development of the whole society.