An outspoken St Rose’s High School team on Thursday won the opening encounter of the third annual Inter-Secondary School Impromptu Speech Competition sponsored by the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry Limited (GBTI).
Aaron Homer, Rehanna Wilson and Saeed Hamid gained 638 points defeating their competitors Tiffany De Santos, Anuradha Deodasingh and Leah Alphonso of Mae’s Secondary who managed only 557 points.
De Santos, Deodasingh and Alphonso selected respectively the topics: ‘My Number One Role Model’, ‘Countries Should be Able to Explore their Nuclear Possibilities’ and ‘Government Should Increase the Emphasis of Moral Education in Public Schools’.
Meanwhile, Homer, Wilson and Hamid of St Rose’s High respectively made presentations on the topics: ‘Opportunities Must be Provided for Underprivileged Children’, ‘How do you Think Teenagers Should Show a Sense of Responsibility and ‘the Piercing of Body Parts Should be Prohibited Except for Earlobes’. For his stimulating presentation of the last topic, Hamid won the best speaker of the match.
During his presentation, Hamid paused and asked the audience if God had placed us on the earth to put holes into our bodies. He then asked the audience to imagine going to a funeral and looking into a casket bearing a body with numberless holes in countless places causing most of the audience to burst into laughter. He pondered also why some people would pierce even their tongues. He concluded by asserting that the piercing of body parts should be prohibited except for the earlobes.
Each speaker was given a minute to examine his/her topic and a minute to speak on it. The winning St Rose’s team advances to the next round of the competition, while Mae’s Secondary has been knocked out.
Dr Joyce Jonas, Maureen Williams and Barbara Sukhai were the judges of the opening match. According to Dr Jonas, who delivered the remarks on behalf of the panel of judges, there was to some extent a degree of solemnity in the presentations though the best speaker was commended for his vibrant and captivating speech. Jonas noted also that some of the contestants exhibited a lack of knowledge of some of the topics.
The participating schools are: Annandale Secondary, Central High School, Christ Church Secondary, Covent Garden Secondary, Cummings Lodge Secondary, Institute of Business Education, Marian Academy, President’s College, Queen’s College, Richard Ishmael Secondary, School of the Nations, St John’s College, St Joseph High, St Rose’s High and St Stanislaus College.
In his brief remarks, Radhakrishna Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of the GBTI who declared the competition open at the bank’s Bel Air Recreational Centre said GBTI saw itself as having an important role in developing and supporting activities that seek to build individuals and communities.
According to Sharma, the impromptu speech competition is aimed at addressing the continuing need for training to improve the confidence, composure and competence of young people in order that they may be able to face the challenges that lie ahead.
“We believe that it is important to create opportunities to improve the all-round capabilities of our students and recognise that through speech making they can open their minds to being creative and innovative, as this is way of words,” said Sharma.
Also present at the opening ceremony was Genevieve Whyte-Nedd, Chief Education Officer of the Ministry of Education. In her brief remarks, she challenged the students to deliver performances of a higher level and standard at this year’s competition after expressing disappointment at last year’s competition. (Femi Harris)
