Students in the National Capital District now have an avenue to express themselves and improve their writing and public speaking skills with the Emstret School Competition Program (ESCP).
The program, aimed to promote literacy, self-expression and talent through the art of public speaking, poetry writing and recitals, kicked off today with the debate challenge.
ESCP also aims to improve vocabulary skills for young Papua New Guineans in schools throughout the country.
The program comprises of a debate challenge, poetry slam and spelling bee championship.
Previously known as the IBS School Debate, the debate challenge under this program involves six participating NCD schools to be held on August 30 to September 1.
The Poetry Slam is a competition centered on creative poetic writing and poetry recitals. Participating school will select two competitors. The competition will be run as a separate event from Sept 12-16.
The Spelling Bee Champions is a competition for the primary school students from grade 3 to 8. Students compete against other competitors from other schools to spell a broad selection of words.
Emstret director Vani Nades said it’s all about empowering our youth and the children of today.
Nades said: “We believe that investing in their time in such competition builds their confidence and expose them to different things, also learning outside of the classroom is very important.
NCD superintendent school coordinator Iru Walupi commended Emstret for the initiative and thanked the participating schools for coming on board.
Walupi said during the opening of the debate challenge that the Government’s focus today imparts on compulsory and quality education so it’s a call for all stakeholders to take more responsibility in educating students.
Walupi encouraged the participating students to be responsible to grasp the knowledge given not only in the classroom but in programs like this.