Doha: The 8th session of the "Illuminations" initiative launched by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) under the theme of best friend discussed five themes that included reading for learning, self-development, and joy, reading in the digital age, reading and society, role of libraries and platforms in encouraging reading habit, as well as challenges and suggested solutions to promote the culture of reading. The initiative was a conversation platform that primarily aimed to gather educators in panel discussions that tackled pedagogical and academic issues of shared concern to ultimately reach effective and inspirational development ideas, in pursuit of employing the outcomes of these sessions to enhance the MoEHE's plans and educational polices. The 8th session of the "Illuminations" initiative was held to mark the World Book and Copyright Day on April 23, which is observed each year, and was attended by several MoEHE officials, over 500 students from both genders, alongside teachers, par ents, and school principals. Addressing the session, CEO of Rosa Publishing House and head of Qatari Forum for Authors at the Ministry of Culture Dr. Aisha Jassim Al Kuwari commended the "Illuminations" initiative as a new illumination to explore innovative solutions for a lot of issues, praising the MoEHE's celebration of the World Book and Copyright Day to catalyze students into reading and introduce the rights and duties of authors. Al Kuwari reviewed the role performed by the publishing houses to catalyze the society into reading, noting the close relationship between reading and writing. She said that to be stellar writers people should also be stellar readers, affirming that the key mission was to make reading a lifestyle in the society, because Qatar deserves the best of erudite citizens who access learning sources. She underscored the importance of printed books despite digital advancement, noting the sheer number of young authors in Qatar as an indicative of the criticality of the reading communit y, assuring the young people who are concerned about the social media platforms that overtly compete with the printed book. Al Kuwari highlighted that these platforms are merely ancillaries and not alternatives for books and are only utilized to introduce the released versions. Al Kuwari revealed that authenticity, accurateness, and objectivity are the key criteria for book selection and publication, adding that books represent a qualitative addition to the knowledge-based community. She explained that there is a supervisory technical committee that determines the book publication criteria, calling for promoting the role of libraries through beneficial events to create a momentum for reading. CEO of Rosa Publishing House stressed the importance of concerted efforts to create a knowledge-based community through promoting the culture of reading which remained a shared responsibility among all individuals, as well as community and state institutions, lauding the students' experience with reading as highlighted in the session, which is essentially supportive for creating authorship, publication and strengthening the culture of reading in the society. Source: Qatar News Agency