AGHSAN Project

Project Aghsan is the first-of-its kind extensive graded reading programme in Arabic aspiring to publish 3000 titles covering a range of fiction and non-fiction texts aimed at children aged 3-11+ by 2025. The programme was conceived of to address and tackle a number of challenges posed by existing Arabic reading material; these challenges include, but are not limited to, material not matching the reading ability of children, content being more skewed to non-fiction, content that is not relatable to 21st century life, and the absence of a unified system for levelling children’s books.

Project Aghsan, over the next three years, will gradually work towards the goal of 3000 titles. Phase one targeting ages 3-6 and focusing on phonics-based words up to four letters should be available this summer; phase two which covers ages 6-8 and focuses on phonics-based words and sight words should be completed by April 2024; and phase three which targets ages 9-11 and focuses on all complex phonics structures not covered earlier is expected to be finalised by the end of 2025.