Some of the workshop participants.
Additional assistance is on the way for students who experience difficulties communicating.
This morning, Republic Bank launched the fifth edition of its RightStart Primary School Speech Contest.
The launch at the bank’s Independence Square, Bridgetown office coincided with a workshop for teachers.
Katrina Kirton
“The competition is geared at assisting children ages nine to 11 in developing their speech delivery and language skills, basically setting them up to go into the secondary school system and be able to communicate with others effectively,” explained Katrina Kirton, an officer in the bank’s marketing and corporate communications department.
Today’s workshop is the first of two; the other will target students.
“Following that we’ll have a preliminary session followed by a semi finals and finals,” explained Kirton.
The competition will run from February to June, and participation is expected to surpass the 30 schools that have already registered.
“This year we’ve had a lot of responses from a lot of new schools. We’re looking forward to more participation,” the officer said adding, “I want to encourage any of you parents who have children between the ages of nine to 11 and you haven’t heard about the competition in your schools to [speak to] the teachers and get everybody involved.”