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UEM Sunrise Encourages English Speaking Environment Through The Public Speaking & Debate Competition

NUSAJAYA, 7 October 2015 – UEM Sunrise Berhad (“UEM Sunrise” or the Company) the master developer of Nusajaya, one of the five flagship zones of Iskandar Malaysia has successfully organised the “Public Speaking & Debate Competition” for its PINTAR Adopted School students at the Bangunan Dato’ Jaafar Muhammad in Kota Iskandar Nusajaya, today.

The inaugural Public Speaking & Debate Competition was organised under the annual Green Programme introduced in 2010 for its PINTAR Adopted Schools. Participated by 60 students, the competition aimed at helping the students to articulate, organise and present ideas, opinions and information in relation to green environment, in a logical and persuasive manner.

The Green Programme’s Public Speaking & Debate Competition 2015 is different as compared to the previous competitions under the Green Programme series. Since its inception, Green Programme activities evolves from Carbon Footprint Project, Mini Forest, Compose Bin Project, Nusajaya landmark sculpture from recycling items, to Mini Garden, as at last year. This year, in line with the paradigm shift of the Malaysia’s National Education Blueprint, UEM Sunrise highlighted the essentials of Higher Order Thinking Skills (“HOTS”) among the students.

The competitions were divided into two categories – Public Speaking for primary schools and Debate for secondary schools. For the Public Speaking category, within five minutes, the students were required to speak on any topics related to green environment with advance preparations.

Meanwhile for the Debate category, the students were divided into proposition and opposition sides called Team A and Team B respectively, in accordance to the British Parliamentary format. Working in a group of three speakers, with only one speech each, a speaker will be allocated time to speak of between three to five minutes. Members were allowed to express their opinions to support the given topic “Protecting The Environment Is More Important Than Economic Development”.

The four-hour event witnessed some spectacular presentations of talents and potentiality of the students, both primary and secondary schools. For the Public Speaking category, the champion goes to Raja Muhammad Izzudin Raja Ismail Shamshudin from SK Kampung Pulai, walked away with RM300, medal and a certificate of participation. The first and second runner ups received RM250 and RM200 cash prizes, medals and certificates of participation which went to Saravanan A/L Murugan from SJK Tamil Gelang Patah and Siti Nurmiza Muhammad Yusuf from SK Kg Pulai respectively. Meanwhile, 13 consolation winners received RM100 cash prizes and a certificate of participation each.

For the Debate category, all top three winners went to groups from SMK Gelang Patah. The champion went to Team B from 3rd session of the competition, bagged home a cash prize of RM600, medals and a certificate of participation. While the first and second runner ups goes to Team B from the 1st session and Team A from the 2nd session which took home cash prizes of RM500 and RM400 respectively, medals as well as a certificate of participation. A cash prize of RM200 was given to three consolation winners including medals and a certificate of participation for each team which all went to SMK Taman Nusa Jaya. Meanwhile for the best speaker went to Nur Wani Nadhirah Mohammad Shofian Shah from SMK Taman Nusa Jaya which took home a cash prize of RM200.

UEM Sunrise’s Head of Corporate Communications, Nik Surina Suria Nik Abdullah commenting on the event said, “This competition is part of UEM Sunrise on-going quests to develop and engender an English-proficient community in all UEM Sunrise’s PINTAR schools in Nusajaya. We endeavor to continue with today’s programme in the coming years to support the HOTS initiatives implemented by the Ministry of Education”.