Greater focus on selecting top reader in this year’s competition – John

by Bria King Fri, Oct 5, 2012

The Courts Fourth Annual Primary Schools’ Reading Competition, which is being held under the theme “Investing in our nation’s children”, began its preliminary rounds on Wednesday.{{more}}

Twenty-six students from the Calliaqua, Georgetown, Union and Marriaqua zones were judged at the Curriculum Development Unit.

In the second preliminary round held yesterday, children from the Grenadines, Kingstown and North and South Leeward zones were judged.

Commenting on the preliminaries so far, a teacher stated that generally, there has been an improvement.

“The pronunciation of words was an improvement from what I heard last year,” she said.

Alexis John, Marketing Manager at Courts St Vincent Ltd, stated that several changes have been made to the competition this year. Seven finalists will be chosen instead of the nine which have been chosen in previous years.

“We want to ensure that we win the competition for the first time, so there is a greater focus on selecting the top reader from this competition this year,” John said.

In addition, John stated that usually, the winning school receives $2,000. However, this year, Courts would like that prize money to go towards a literacy project for the school. In this way, the entire school will benefit from the money, he said.

The winner of the local finals is set to receive many prizes. In addition to a cash prize of $2,000, the winner receives the opportunity to read news on SVG TV, as well as NBC radio. Also included is one year of free Internet from Karib Cable.

Furthermore, other prizes from various sponsors are included, and the seven finalists are set to receive savings accounts from GECCU.

Also, for taking part in the competition, all participants received a certificate and a book, compliments the Jujube bookstore.

The local Finals of the competition is slated for October 23. The winner will represent St Vincent in the regional Finals which will take place on November 15 in Dominica.