A group of Saudi students, teachers and schools this week received the first place awards of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid for outstanding educational performance. The winners were announced at a press conference held on the sidelines of a meeting for the Executive Board of the Arab Bureau for Gulf States, by the Secretary General of the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Makhtoum Prize for Distinctive Educational Performance, which aims to give a face-lift to education in the Gulf. Dalia Abdurrahman Al-Qarni from Dar Al-Fikr Schools in Jeddah received the first place award for girls while Ahmed Abdurrazaq Al-Saleh was ranked first in the boys' category. Moreover, two Saudi teachers collected the first place awards in their category. From Al-Ahsa, Jihan Abdullah Al-Nahdi came first among female teachers, and Khaled Khalifa Al-Khamees, was ranked above all other male teachers in the Gulf region for his outstanding performance. Imam Soyoutti Intermediate Boys' School for Memorizing the Qur'an was selected the school with the best educational performance, while the Second Secondary Girls' School at Al-Mubaraz won the best performance prize for girls' schools in the Gulf states. According to Khalifa Al-Suwaidy, member of the general secretary of the prize, some 67 participants competed to win the awards. “There were 29 competitors from Saudi Arabia,” Al-Suwaidy said. He added that Saudi Arabia won six out of the other 19 awards for best educational performances in different categories of the prize. Najah Al-Akhtar, head of the female Students' Activity Department at Jeddah girls' section, said that the prizes would be an incentive for the winners and others to achieve more success. Hana'a Al-Ghamdi, media coordinator at the Girl's Education Department, told Saudi Gazette that the General Directorate of Education has taken part in the contest for the past five years. “This year, we prepared our students with extracurricular programs that helped them in the competition,” she said.
