DUBAL announces 2 competitions for students to encourage research & development activities in the UAE

This initiative is in line with the directives of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE minister for Finance and Industry and Chairman of DUBAL, to encourage and stress the importance of R&D activities among the students of the UAE.

Ms. Shaikha Ali Bin Qedad, Corporate Relations & International Affairs Officer at DUBAL, said: "DUBAL has already seen the number of visits from the schools to its complex increase. This is expected to touch 44 during the 2006-2007 academic year. Each visit has a group of about 30 students. During their visit various information and statistics about the aluminium complex were given to the students by the DUBAL guides. Based on this information students were asked to write an article about the company."

"We are grateful for our highly committed Guides who volunteered to tour the DUBAL complex along with the students and explain to them details of our various operations."

"Focused at the secondary and preparatory stages all over the educational zones in the country, we believe the award will help encourage the pupils to do research from different sources of article writing," Ms. Shaikha added.

"We are confident this community initiative by DUBAL helped to increase the knowledge about the company's functions, among the state schools. Students were also encouraged to develop the spirit of team work and expand their creative abilities and identify products made within the country."

For the elementary education, the winner was Al Khama'el Model School for girls from the West Area in Abu Dhabi, while Al Manar Model School of Sharjah came second and Al Ghazali Model School from Abu Dhabi came third.

In the drawing competition, the Al Mawahib Model School won the first and second ranks while the Al Majd Model School came third.

"Students sent their entries within two weeks of their visit to DUBAL. A committee from the Ministry of Education (MoE) and DUBAL evaluated the entries and selected the top three. The winning school was honored," said Ms. Shaikha

The articles (participations) were nominated by the pupils' activities section at schools and then sent to the cultural and artistic activities department in the MOE. An arbitration committee had been formed from the MoE and DUBAL.

A DUBAL delegation informed the schools about the results and the pupils were awarded.