Sulaimaan Ukadia of Al Falah was victorious with Cricket – A Game That Incites Passion as the curtain came down on the recent inaugural Barbados National Bank (BNB) Rightstart Primary Schools Speech Contest at Combermere School hall.
Second place went to Aliyah Reid from West Terrace Primary and third was Tia Collymore from St Alban’s. The other competitors were Tia Lewis of West Terrace, Stacia Martindale of St Alban’s and Delano Edwards of Cuthbert Moore Primary.
Minister of Education and Human Resource Development Ronald Jones delivered the feature address and congratulated BNB for highlighting and encouraging youths to be confident in expressing their thoughts and emotions.
He further said that he hoped that the contest would encourage schools and other organizations to utilize the development of formal oral language skills.
This, he added, would stimulate critical thinking and problem-solving and help youths to see themselves as leaders, entrepreneurs and visionaries within their homes and communities.
BNB’s senior manager (administration and operations) Juta Thorpe, said BNB sought to use the contest as a medium through which it could instil in children the need to speak standard English, the ability to articulate their positions and the confidence to speak publicly. (PR)