Aspiring politician leads St Martin’s to National Public Speaking title

The St Martin’s Secondary School came out on top in this year’s FLOW/Lions Club St Vincent South National Secondary Schools Public Speaking Competition earlier this week.

When the battle of words ended, Oscar Browne, a third form student, gained 412 points out of a total 500 points to beat out the competition.

It was the first time that the all-boy school had won the competition in the 23 years that it has been hosted by the Lions Club South.

And for the first time since inception of the competition, there was a tie for second place.

The 14-year-old resident of Diamond Estate told SEARCHLIGHT that he was chosen to represent his school because of his “outgoing personality”.

He said his teachers recognised that he is comfortable with public speaking as he has conducted assembly at school on “multiple occasions”.

The son of Anthony Walker and Ann-Marie Browne is an aspiring politician and hopes one day to be Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

He thanked his teachers Shanda Boyea, Gloria Williams and Camisha Bascombe for assisting him with his preparations.

Kondolesha Browne of the Georgetown Secondary School and Fayth English of the Girls’ High School both placed second with 398 points.

Winner of the 2022 Lions Club South Flow Public Speaking Competition Oscar Browne (left) with joint second place winners, Kondolesha Browne (centre) and Fayth English

The other finalists were Derissa James of the Union Island Secondary School, Elrose Millington of the Thomas Saunders Secondary School and Andre Bowman of the Mountain View Adventist Academy.

The six finalists in the competition competed in three rounds of public speaking challenges when the event kicked off at the Methodist Church Hall, Kingstown on Tuesday evening, October 25.

In the first round, students spoke on the topic ‘Governance systems around the world were challenged in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many governments bungled the economic health and civil liberties response’.

With his speech, Browne placed first in the first round with a well researched and delivered presentation on the range of approaches used by governments around the world to manage the pandemic, noting the actions were “justified” in the interest of public health.

In the second round, students were required to make a five-minute presentation on a topic of their choice. Again, Browne was the stand-out competitor, with his presentation on ‘Mental Illness among Adolescents’.

The confident teenager spoke about the stigma associated with mental illness and the effects of social media and substance abuse on the mental health of young people. He lamented that inadequate resources are made available to address mental health issues in society, and made recommendations to improve the situation.

The final impromptu round, where students were handed a topic and allocated one minute to prepare, proved most challenging for the participants. This segment was won by Kondolesha Browne of the Georgetown Secondary School, who was asked to speak on the topic: ‘My Favourite Day of the Year’. She chose Christmas Day as her favourite day of the year as on that day, she is able to spend time with her family.

The event was attended by government officials, including the Minister of Education, Curtis King and the Minister of Tourism and Culture, Carlos James. Chief Education Officer, Kay Martin-Jack as well as Opposition Member of Parliament, Dwight Fitz Bramble were also in attendance. Acting Country Manager of Flow Shelly-Ann Toney was also in attendance and assisted with the distribution of prizes.

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