RightStart Finalists Show The Way Forward For Public Speaking

The upcoming finals of this year’s Republic Bank RightStart Speech Contest for primary schools is testament to the fact the future of public speaking in Barbados is in good hands.

There is however a need for teachers to encourage greater participation from male students who are presently significantly outnumbered by their female counterparts.

That’s the assessment from chief judge, John Kellman following last weekend’s semi-final clash of the best young orators from primary schools in Barbados at the Lester Vaughan School. Only one male student, Talha Mohamed of the Al-Falah Primary school will be appearing in this year’s final, slated for Saturday, June 11th at the Olympus Theatre, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

“We are again encouraged with the high standard of speeches in the competition. The students demonstrated that they had done their research, there was good delivery and confidence. It is certainly commendable that these young people have the courage to come up to the stage to face all of you in the audience. The judges have noted however that there was only one boy in today’s contest and this is something about which we are concerned; and we encourage teachers to try to involve more boys in the contest, not to the detriment of the girls, but to assist those boys,” said Kellman.

Joining Mohamed in the finals will be his schoolmate Faaizah Bhana; Latavia Hazell-Codrington and Akayla Lynch both of Hindsbury Primary; Naresha Seowdat of St. Margaret’s Primary and Lashauntea Sobers of St. Joseph Primary.

In addition to crowning the best primary school orator for 2016, more than $10,000 in prizes will be shared among winning schools and students, including Republic Bank RightStart accounts for each finalist and the top three schools.

Other exciting prizes include office and computer equipment compliments of associate sponsor Promotech, with additional prizes and support for the competition coming from Chefette Restaurants.