Friday September 14, 2012
Kaieteur News
Page 25
Results of essay competition signal need for more work in classrooms An urgent call has been thrown out to teachers to incorporate essay writing, reading and other measures to help develop research skills in the daily teaching and learning process. This appeal was made by Tutorial High School teacher, Ms Shandrina Lee, as she delivered the judges’ report at a prize-giving ceremony at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Kingston, Georgetown, yesterday. The activity marked the end of the 2011 edition of the Ministry of EducationGUYAID essay competition. This is the 19th year that the competition has been held through the Ministry’s collaboration with Guyanese Assisting In Development (GUYAID), which is a United States-based charitable organisation created by Guyanese with a passion for seeing development in Guyana, particularly in the
area of education. The competition which is divided into three categories – Under-12, Over-12 and Over-14 - saw Bibi Famela Ghanie of Saraswat Primary School, Vijay Shivkarran of Diamond Secondary and Oma Devi Nanku of Bygeval Secondary copping the top prizes in the respective categories. Although the performances of the winners and the runner-up pieces were described as “a job well done”, Lee noted that many pieces submitted have left much to be desired. According to her, some students did not quite master the writing skills that would have enabled them to write a sequenced and effective essay. In fact many of the essays, she said, lacked effective introductions and some had no conclusion. A total of 269 essay pieces were submitted with 93 entries in the Under-12 category, 88 entries in the Over-12
category and another 88 entries in the Over-14 category. Commenting on the Under-12 category, Lee said that too many essays revealed that basic writing skills and proper sentence construction were lacking. She said too that spelling and word usage were poor in many entries. It was also discovered that at one school two essays were submitted that had the same information. “It means that the teacher had two different students copy the same information. We seem to be teaching our students that cheating is normal. We must be careful with the models we give to our students,” Lee cautioned. Interesting to note, the topic for the Under-12 essay was ‘The teacher I would like to be’. Though a higher quality of writing was exhibited in the Over-12 category, Lee disclosed that in many cases they lacked any input from the students themselves since
Friday September 14, 2012 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): The amount of work you put into something is directly proportional to the quality of said work, so try not to cut any corners today. ******************* TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): Sometimes privacy is a luxury, and you might have to sacrifice some of yours today. Your presence is in high demand. People want you, left, right and center. ****************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): Someone who's pulling an 'aw shucks' attitude around you today is full of beans -- although you don't have to call them on it if you don't feel like it. ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): Things are improving in your work or school life -- you are taking a bigger and better initiative and letting your curiosity lead you in new directions. ********************* LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): Your heart has been sending you in the right direction, but now it's time for you to let your gray matter weigh in on the current situation. ******************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept. 22): Moving from place to place will be effortless for you today -- you are in an extremely flexible phase right now, and to top it all off, the universe is moving in such a way that all the pieces are falling into place right where you need them. *********************
LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22): Pull back your focus a little bit, there -- you are only seeing one small aspect of a huge (and growing) situation. ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 - Nov. 21): As illogical as it sounds, your heavy mood can be lightened by heavy thoughts. If you face whatever is troubling you head-on and process it with as much honesty as you can, your worries will eventually fade away to nothing. ******************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 - Dec. 21): It's funny how someone can say something that is fairly meaningless to them but acts as a huge trigger for you. .********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): If you think you can fake it when it comes to an intimidating situation today, you're way off base! You cannot bluff your way through things right now, so don't even try. ******************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 Feb. 18): A hot, trendy nightspot might not seem the best place to get a new business venture started, but doesn't mean you shouldn't try. ********************* PISCE S ( F e b . 1 9 March 20): Today, beating the odds isn't about getting the best hand of cards or picking the right sequence of numbers -- it's all about exceeding expectations!
The three top performers in the essay competition. From left: Vijay Shivkarran, Bibi Famela Ghanie and Oma Devi Nanku the pieces saw students blatantly engaging in plagiarism. “The students copied information wholesale from the internet and presented it as their own. This is a very serious offence,” Lee warned, adding that a similar trend was observed among many entries in the Over-14 category. Many of these, she said, lacked originality and creativity. “We have to be careful what we as educators endorse when materials are presented by students,” Lee said, as she pointed to the use of technology as commendable, but an avenue of information that students must be taught to use wisely. She stressed, too, that while ‘big words’ do have their place at times, they must not be used when they do not clearly reveal students’ ideas. The topic for the Over-12 category was ‘The harmful effects of plastic bottles and bags’ while the Over-14 topic was ‘My country, a tourist’s dream’. The winner of each category was given the privilege to read their piece before a gathering of education officials, teachers and students who were gathered at NCERD to be a part of yesterday’s ceremony. The annual competition is aimed at enhancing students’ literary and research skills, and usually targets students from all 11 education districts,
according to Assistant Chief Education Officer (Secondary), Ms Doomattie Singh. However, she noted that while Regions Eight and Nine did not submit entries this year, Region Six was disqualified since entries were submitted late. The first place winner of each category of the competition is eligible for a $20,000 cash prize, a certificate and the school he/ she attends is bestowed with a plaque of recognition. In addition to a certificate, the second and third place winners are eligible for a $15, 000 and $10,000 cash prize respectively, while runnersup are offered $3,000 gift
vouchers to procure books at Austin’s Book Services. All prizes are provided by GUYAID. According to Chairman of the GUYAID Guyana Chapter, Mrs. Bernice Mansell, GUYAID owes its existence and growth to the continued generosity and support of the Guyanese community based in Washington, as well as the local Guyanese community. “We owe a debt of gratitude to the Ministry of Education, the teachers, the parents and schools...to our students, your reward and ours is to know that we had a hand in helping you to believe in yourselves,” Mrs. Mansell added.