Singaporean student wins regional speaking contest in Vientiane, Laos

A Singaporean student who believes that Asean schools should offer safe sex education as part of their teaching curriculum has won first place in the Young Speakers Contest in Vientiane .

According to an announcement of the judging committee of the contest, released on Tuesday at the Farewell Dinner for the Participants of the 9 th Educational Forum and Young Speakers Contest at the Cosmo Hotel in Vientiane , Ms Crystella Prathap, a Singaporean university student, took first place in the competition, receiving a cash prize of US$ 1,000.

Ms Prathap is a young student who strongly expressed her opinion that safe sex education would be the best way to reduce numbers of people in the region infected with HIV/AIDS.

She explained that when people know the way to prevent the disease, they apply that knowledge and avoid becoming infected with incurable diseases, according to a member of judging committee, the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Letters, Associate Prof. Dr Buasavanh Keovilay, one of the judges.

The judge said the first winner argued that Asian students should never be shy about talk about HIV/AIDS prevention....read more >>

“I asked the winner to talk about the fact that some people in Asean nations consider HIV/AIDS prevention a taboo issue in society. Does she think the introduction of such curriculum would encourage young people to have more love affairs?” she recalled.

The winner responded well, saying that since it was impossible to prevent young people from engaging in love affairs, the only way to is to tell them how to protect themselves, according to Dr Buasavanh.

“She answered that the curriculum will not encourage students to have love affairs but will tell them how to protect themselves from infection with HIV/AIDS,” she added, quoting the winner's answer.

The second and third places in the annual contest went to Filipino university student Mr Kikko Angelo Ramos, who received an award of US$500 and Singaporean university student Ms Ling Pei Shan, who received US$250.

The topic of the contest was “One Asean at the Heart of Dynamic Asia”. In the second round, contestants were given a different topic. Each had some time to prepare their presentation before they spoke in front of the judging committee.

Dr Buasavanh said that the Singaporean and Philippine contestants were advantaged among the students from other Asean nations because as they speak English as their official language, while students from other nations speak English as a foreign language.

“These students do not only speak English well but they also come up with critical thinking and vision,” she said.

Dr Buasavanh said that the Lao contestant was selected from among the best students in the English Department of the Faculty of Letters, but was shy about presenting her ideas in public and did not have a str ong vision.

She said Lao students needed to learn a lot about how to speak in public and how to present logical reasons to convince the public about what they believed in.

A member of the contest's organising committee, Dr Alongkone Saignaleuth said the National University of Laos had been a competitor in the contest since it began in 1997. A Lao student took second place in the contest two years ago in the Philippines , he said.

By Ekaphone Phouthonesy