UAE students National Day 'human sentence' breaks record

Dubai - The 6,958 students - drawn from 35 GEMS schools across the UAE - spelled out the sentence "Happy National Day" in the presence of officials from the Guinness World Records.

To celebrate the UAE's upcoming 44th National Day, almost 7,000 students gathered at GEMS Modern Academy to smash the existing world record for the "world's largest human sentence."
The 6,958 students - drawn from 35 GEMS schools across the UAE - spelled out the sentence "Happy National Day" in the presence of officials from the Guinness World Records.
The previous record of 6,282 participants was set in Nice, France, by employees of Tiens Group, a Chinese multinational, on May 8, when they spelled out "Tien's Dream is nice in the Cote D'Azur."
"This is more than about breaking a world record. The message for us is about showing our support for the UAE and in celebration of the UAE National Day," said Dino Varkey, group executive director and board member of GEMS education.
"More and more one of the things that we realise is that while there are so many different countries and cultures represented in the UAE, we're starting to coalesce around a common culture and a common set of values," he added.
To break the record, the students were required to wear the same colour and stand perfectly still for five minutes while forming a grammatically correct sentence, which could have been written in any language.
The event was also attended by a number of officials from Dubai's Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), along with its Director-General, Dr Abdulla Al Karam, who even participated in a 400-metre relay race that pit GEMS students and teachers against KHDA staff.
GEMS Modern Academy pupil Mohammed Abdullah Ahmad said: "It was a wonderful experience being a part of breaking a world record. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and I got it." "We feel awesome. To be a part of this is really great," said Damian Fernandes of the Millennium School in Dubai.
"The long wait outside was worth it, and since we were with friends it wasn't boring at all."
"It's like being a part of history," added another Millennium School student, Kashef Minod.
Dino Varkey said that GEMS was ecstatic about the student's achievement.
"We have the privilege of educating 250,000 children every day around the world. So, managing 7,000 should be easy," Dino Varkey added.
"But getting 7,000 children to be perfectly still for five minutes, that was the challenge."
bernd@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai