As part of the “Centennial Initiative” and to enhance students’ personality and moral values

The National Archives initiates a series of workshops on the project of “Zayed in 100 Story”. 

In preparation for the national educational initiative “Zayed, 100 Story”, which is part of the national “Centennial” initiative launched by the National Archives in celebration of the Year of Zayed, and in line with the fifth edition of its project “Student Historians’ Club”, which aims at teaching people about the Founding Leader, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the NA has initiated a series of workshops for school students in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, to inform students of the requirements which should be met in their stories. 

This national educational initiative, which is one of the results of the NA’s “Centennial” initiative, aims at enhancing belonging to the homeland and loyalty to the leadership, developing students’ personality, fostering their moral values and high principles and helping them with patriotic writings and scientific research methodology.

Through this national educational initiative, the NA emphasizes the importance of highlighting the efforts, achievements and values of the Founding Leader Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and opening new pages of UAE history. This will enhance the national and behavioral values, as well as knowledge and community values of school students who will build the future of the homeland and preserve its accomplishments.

Within the context of this initiative, school students write stories about the Founding Leader, by presenting the knowledge they gained and the stories they learnt about Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan through extensive readings, oral history interviews, and courses, activities and events held by the NA.

The workshops, held by experts and specialists from the NA in its premises and in some schools in the UAE, are aimed to spread awareness among students of the importance of concentrating on the main character of the story (the Late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan), the availability of story components, balance of events in the materials provided by students, which should be supported with national and moral values, written in correct and attractive language, and should fulfill the requirements of a successful story.

The workshops also provide participating students with the requirements to participate in the initiative in which a large number of UAE school students, ranging from Grade 8 to Grade 12, are competing. In the workshops, students are practically trained on story writing, its methods and how reality overlaps with imagination. The workshops inform students of oral history as a research approach concerned with studying the past as it is preserved in memory through narration and make them aware of its role in preserving the UAE’s history and heritage and how to benefit from it in writing the stories.

It is worth mentioning that a large number of participating students have visited the NA premises to enrich their knowledge with important information about the UAE’s history and Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. They started their visit by an induction tour of Sheikh Zayed Hall, which is a permanent exhibition that contains a collection of manuscripts, documents, photographs and maps on the history of the UAE. They learnt about the UAE’s past before the Union, the nation building process and the foundation of the Union. The students visited the Emirates Library, which is a specialized research library that is part of the NA’s scientific and research program. The students have benefited from the resources and references that deals with the history of the UAE in details and the role of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan in establishing the UAE and its blessed Union and in promoting the welfare of its citizens and residents. The students also toured the Customer Happiness Hall, which is designated for receiving researchers and students, and contains the most recent equipment and software that facilitate research on the heritage and history of the UAE and Gulf region, and provide access to historical documents and records retained by the NA. The students have watched a 3-D documentary film about the UAE in the past and present at Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Hall.