All A’s for winning pupils

Khawla Secondary Girls School won top spot in the grand finale of the eighth A9eel in School competition for the academic year 2014/2015 which took place recently at Seef Mall.

It was part of a Tamkeen initiative programme which aims to prepare Bahraini youngsters for success in the labour market by promoting positive work-related values and ethics.

In total 27 schools from across the kingdom participated this year. Each school team had to present an original project to the judging panel which showcased what they had learned from the programme.

The focus of this year’s projects was to creatively address a challenge faced within the school environment that is linked to the A9eel values – attendance, appearance, attitude, acceptance, ambition, accountability and appreciation. The students then had to market their ideas and present a detailed report about it.

The winning project from Khawla Secondary Girls School focused on the issue of recycling. The team invented a device which automatically sorts plastic and paper rubbish and stores it in separate containers.

Each time it is used, the device prints out coupons which can be later redeemed for certain items, thereby encouraging people to use it and properly recycle their rubbish. Shaikh Khalifa Institute for Technology assisted the Khawla Secondary Girls School team in the technical design of the device.

Amal Al-Kooheji, Tamkeen’s vice-president for human capital development, congratulated the competing teams on their achievements, and said: “Bahrain’s youth continue to amaze us year after year with their exceptional ideas which demonstrate their unlimited potential and ability to excel.”

Ten schools qualified for the final round after a highly-competitive evaluation and selection process overseen by a panel of judges which included Mohammed Abdulrahman Mohammed, assistant secretary general of the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions and Tamkeen board member, Eman Janahi, director of youth affairs in the General Organisation for Youth & Sports, and Latifa Al-Bunudha, public and technical education acting-assistant under-secretary in the Ministry of Education.

The awards ceremony was preceded by a public exhibition also held at the mall showcasing all the shortlisted projects to enable the public to view and interact with the various teams about their ideas.

Al-Estiqlal Secondary Girls School came second and Al-Shorooq Girls School took third place in the competition. The other shortlisted schools were Saar Secondary Girls School, Hamad Town Secondary Girls School, Al-Hoora Secondary Girls School, Isa Town Secondary Girls School, Al-Tadamon Secondary Girls School, Jedhafs Secondary Boys School, and Shaikh Khalifa Institute for Technology.