More than 1,000 children enrolled in Qatar’s independent schools will gather tomorrow to try to break the Guinness World Record for the largest ever reading lesson.

The event, which is being held to mark UNESCO’s World Book Day, will be staged at the Qatar National Convention Center in Education City.

Supreme Education Council (SEC) officials said they hope more than 1,000 children between the ages of five and 10 years old will gather at the venue for an hour-long Arabic reading class, during which they’ll read the children’s book “Al Ghadab” (Angry) by Sarah Medina.

The current world record is held by a group of 451 American school children. Adjudicators from Guinness World Records will be on site tomorrow to verify if the Qatar group manages to surpass this number.

The record-breaking attempt is being organized by Qatar-based reading program Maktaba Qatar and Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, in conjunction with sponsors RasGas.

Sarah Champa Al Dafa, founder of Maktaba, said in a statement that the event organizers hope to inspire the country’s young people to read more books in Arabic:

“We believe this attempt underscores Qatar’s commitment to cultivating a love of reading in Arabic amongst future generations, which numerous studies have shown is an important predictor of future success.”

Also this week, Qatar hopes to break the Guinness World Record for most clothes gathered for charity in 24 hours.

To meet its goal of amassing 14 tons of clothes, Qatar Charity will host a collection drive at the Aspire Zone starting at 5pm from Saturday, April 26 to Sunday, April 27.

Thoughts?