Who is your favourite speaker ? (Poll Closed)

If this online segment is permitted why not give a chance for the child to use this also as one of the criterias to win the contest? As this online voting only helps u to receive feedback from those who know the contestants personally and it will be of no use to your organisation. Pls give your suggestions.

Dear T. Esther,

Thank you for your comment!

This segment was introduced with the following objectives:
1. to create more awareness for the annual YMCA Plain English Speaking Awards (PESA)
2. to engage the schools' & families' participation in supporting the contestants
3. to recognise the efforts put in by the contestants
4. to allow contestants to bring back more awards, apart from the certificates and / or the top prizes.

PESA is an established nation-wide public-speaking competition that has been running for the 22nd year. It also serves as a National Education platform for the young. It is not a popularity contest, like the "Campus Superstar", "Singapore Idol". Currently, the committee has no wish to follow such trend where the results are partly contributed by the audiences' input.

Rest assured that the judging panel is made up of deserving personnel in the related education or public speaking fields, with the Chief Judge from the Ministry of Education.

We hope the above-mentioned has addressed your concern.

Since the objective is not to see who is more popular, then perhaps you could just post the contestants' video on line for all to view rather than having a poll.

The polling element ultimately points to who can garner the most votes not because they are a good speaker but how many people they ask to vote for them.

This competition is not about the results. It is more of the process of the compeititon. Brownwyn whose english is fabulous and her grasp for english is also good. Therefore, I can conclude that Brownwyn should be the most possible candidate of winning this compeititon.
So! what are you waiting for. Quickly vote for Brownwyn!!!

Perseverance and Talent is not the key to win in PESA. You have to be from a good school, a well recognised school and if your parents and family are academically inclined or rich, then definetely you have the upperhand, inspite your delivery, a prize is inevitable. I witnessed the JC/CI/Poly/ITE category and i felt that Bala from Ngee Ann Polytechnic deserved the top 3. He should have clinched it, maybe he was too intellectual or was disregarded as he was from Poly. Across the audience, everyone was disappointed, especially me. I can tolerate the winner and the 2nd runner up. The girl from ACJC girl, if she was that good, you should have seen her vote for the audience favourite speaker atleast. I thought my brother who is in local school speaks way better. He won a debate contest.

To confirm my opinions, Kindly look at the website of PESA(http://www.ymca.org.sg/pesa/) under secondary school winners and that is the only place where the finalist is mentioned because he is from ACS(I). How about the rest?

This audience voting is another joke from PESA as everyone who voted basically "Spammed". The other day i saw some at 40 votes and the day after 400++.

I don't think i would encourage my brother to join such a competition in future. It's utter disgrace. I would encourage those from "normal" schools to compete in a very environment and not in a competition plagued with prejudice.

I totally agree with Shirin Kaur. Voting can be basically "spammed". Anyone can vote for themselves by clicking. They can just click 100 times or more a day to get 1293 votes by now. I am sure if you are to check the IP address many of the votes, they are from the same IP address. This will not help to acheive objective 1 & 2 as mention by PESA Sec.

Secondly, if the vote are to be charge at e.g. 50 cents per vote, i am sure the vote would be more genuine and although it maybe less.

I am not against it and I do understand that this is the first time YMCA PESA is doing it. What I do really hope to see is that PESA can really look into the voting process before it spiral out of control & become ( as what Shirin says ) a joke. Winning an award by voting for yourself. Unless PESA recognise this as 'effort', then it will help achieve objective 3 - to recognise the efforts put in by the contestants.

Competation is not about winning, but spirit lies in participation. When i went through video recording of each of them, i realised each candidate is a prodigy, having hidden talent. I wont be wrong if i say "clash of titans". Voting system i belive, was perhaps introducted to gain populaity, to spread awareness go public about happening of such an event, but as usual there is other side of this voting, the face called "sapm", as one of the other have commented.
My hearty Congradulatoins to all participants, KEEP YOUR SPIRITS GOING.

Winning is great but the process to get there is tough. Getting votes is not easy. Anyone noticed how dull the website is? I don't think anyone will find this website without being directed. Try googling for "plain english speaking competition" - without the quotes, and you will find the ymca.org.sg page on No 3 & 4 of the 1st page of google search results and there is NO link to this voting page.

For those of you who are not satisfied with "this" PESA & voting & competition "thingi", no one can satisfy everybody. For the "sore losers" who cannot garner enough votes for yourself or your favourite participant, go harness the power of friends at myspace and facebook, go join groups with 50,000 members and post your link there!. Then, join more groups. Send out comments and and bulletins with your links. Go harness the power of twitter!!! Who say winning is easy. It's a lot of hard work.

Stop complaining. Go to work!!!

Actually I am being forced to vote for a participant from Shuqun Primary School which is my current school .

A post had been made by a teacher to ask students to vote for that particular participant who the number 22 through the website: sqps.commontown.net , a web based student portal.

well, "Student from Shuqun Primary School"
our teachers do not force people to vote,
if you really were forced, why aren't there other people in your class voting as well?why are you the only one voting then?
If you didnt want to vote, you didn't have to.
Either you are just telling lies, or you're someone from another school,trying to sabotage Shuqun.

Well it seems that you had got it right. I am actually a student from somewhere else in UK. I just stop by here after finding out about this event. I also knew that Shuqun Primary School uses CommonTown e-portfolio. That is why I used these information to leave a comment here.

Sorry for writing that comment yesterday. I am truly sorry for what happen.

i think that all the speakers are very talented and hope that they do not cheat in the voting. i believe that if they are really good,then people will certainly vote for them, there is no need to cheat as it will only prove yourself to be the loser.
p.s. i totally agree with pradeep.
p.s.s. congratulations and keep it up for all partcipants!!! :)

Wow, these speakers r very good! P.V, hope that u make SQPS proud! we have faith in u!!! =]

All the speakers featured have done a great job. I am truly amazed by the very young speakers from the kindy section. Their composure on stage at such a young age really impresses! However it appears the winners of the pre-school category won more on the basis of their props (the more elaborate the props the more points awarded?) The rules and regulations made it clear that there should be minimal props. Should not allow props. This is plain english speaking. Let's see how the speakers convey their stories with nothing. Let's see how they stand and place their hands. Only then will it be fair. The 2 winners appeared to be playing and performing instead of plainly speaking to the audience. That definitely made them more entertaining but I guess this is not what PESA first started out to be.

Hi T Vinesh,

Be care ful of what u are saying - the judges were very capable!!! You are saying that you make a better judge than all the 5 judges put together???

If you were there to watch, you would have noticed that the 2 winners of the kindi section were also the ones who speak the best plain english among all the participants in the kindi section.

P.vignesh , hope that you are able to win and make SQPS proud!
P.vignesh , 加油! 真希望你能赢，为学校争光!

At the same time, I would like to wish China success in hosting the Olympic Games!

Go pv i will support always.Make SHUQUN proud!!!!!!!!!

Hi, I am contestant no.2 Matthias Seah Pr 2 from Pei Hwa Primary School. I would like to say something. I think all the contestants are very talented. They can speak good English and they worked very hard for this event. Even though many did not get into the finals, I think they all did their very best.I think it is very good that they put this event so that students can build their confidence talking to audience. I enjoyed my experience telling a story to the audience.

Do Shuqun Primary students know that Scott Ang (No. 13),of Singapore Sports School and Champion of the Secondary Division was a former student of Shuqun primary? Shuqun Primary, you are the best!

I hope u win! foohoo!

So interesting to read all the comments posted. I had a discussion with some of my friends in the teaching fraternity so here's our 2 cents worth.
Why are some of the winners not included in the voting?
For the "kindi" section, no one spoke better english. They only told stories written by others. The winners had the same story so maybe they chose the right story which allows for better expressions. Otherwise all the contestants spoke equally good English. How well Englsih is spoken is not determined by accents.
We also question the authenicity of the votes. Looks like there is competition amongst a few to outdo each other in the voting.

P.Vignesh , please do your "thing"

"thing" means to make Shuqun Primary School proud.

I LOVE P.vignesh!
520!!!!!!!!!

P.Vignesh, your speech is perfect to me. I believe that you will make our school proud. Best wishes my friend!

Hi yao ming. Good match on the night before.
Love you, see you at our usual secret hideout tonight for some exciting hanky panky. :p :p :p

P.S. I love your muscular body and tattoos all over your arms.

Lebron James, actually I am a FAKE. The REAL yao ming is in China now, having competitions with other teams from other participating nations.

P.Vignesh, your speech is perfect to me. I believe that you will make our school proud. Best wishes my student!

Hi, I'm Nishanti Wijedasa, and I'm from the Secondary school category. I would just like to say, to all the discusion circulating this board, and all the comments made, that I think this is an opportunity for supporters of the contestants to show their love, be it for their schoolmates, their relatives, or just simply because they want to, and so I think that this portal should just be taken as a casual way of communicating to the contestants, sending through support, even if it is not verbal.
And I'd just like to remark that people should not debate so much about the relevance of this voting means, or even get angry when this website is 'spammed'. If someone put in the effort to 'spam' the system, well that shows how much the person is cared about, doesn't it?

That's just my viewpoint, thanks! :)

Yeah! I have managed to escape from the detention centre and now I am also able to access to the internet.

P.Vignesh I have voted for you. All the best!

Hi P.Vignesh,

Wish you all the very best and looking forward to hear the great news.
Keep rocking Shuqun.

hi p.vignesh i have voted for u as i am telling u that cause u do not need to know me or even does not know me

MORNING. I THINK FLORA ANN PAUL ROX

PAUL YOU ROCK

I personally think that all the contestants did a fantastic job!!! One should really see the competitions, before making judgements. To Shirin Kaur, i feel you when you mentioned about Bala. In fact, a few of us were rather upset. But we understand that reality is cruel and there can only be 1 winner. I'm sure the judges have their reasons for the scores. No matter what, Bala has done us (Poly Graduates) proud by getting into the Finals. To us, he is already a victor! WTG, Bala! And the champion, is from SRJC.. a neighbourhood JC, if i may use the term (no offence though)... He managed to 'defeat' all others from well-known JCs like ACJC, RJC, VJC and emerged as Champion. This shows that it really doesn't matter if you don't come from a well-known school, isn't it? And for Scott Ang, champion of Singapore Sports School, he is fantastic too!! Who says that students from Sports School knows nothing apart from Sports? Scott has proven you wrong! Don't stereotype!!!
As mentioned by the Secretariat, the 1st objective is to create awareness for PESA... Let me congratulate you, cos i think this objective has been met, based on the number of votes. Regardless of whether people come in to vote blindly or not, the awareness has been created and the fact is, they did visit the website and vote!!! And look at the number of comments, though some are really not so 'constructive' and simply irrelevant. (This is for voting, not for love declaration :P)
As initiated by Coleman, i tried to vote more than once on my pc, but couldn't. So i don't think that certain comments are really factual.
Seems like Shuqun Pri is very active in here... That meets the 2nd objective!!! :P
Matthias did very well in the competition too... his enunciation was great... seldom do u hear a young kid speak with such clarity! Matthias, hope you'll not be disheartened and take part again in next year's PESA or other speaking competition! I'm sure you'll win one day!
I agree with Nishanti's point!!!
Did someone mentioned charging 50cents per vote? It's a double-edged sword...
1. It can ensure sincere voters
2. It can be a source of revenue
but... it can also restrict the number of people who want to vote, and it may become too commercialise.... Like wat the Secretariat said, they don't want to make it like a Campus Superstar thingy... which is good!! Cos in those competitions, only the rich will win, so to speak.. Agree?
Let's give our support to all contestants and also the organisers for putting this together... As this is their 1st attempt, there's always room for improvement... Let's not be so critical....
The world will be a much more better place..... :)

I think Arianna Kugendran deserves to win this contest. I do not know her. I have no links with her. But I feel everybody will be happy to see that little girl win. I request Ashish Jayaprasad to gracefully exit and let the little one see the first victory of her life in the limelight. Hope he will heed this appeal.

Kudos to all the contestants for having the confidence to go on stage & speak. Ref to Nishanti's (No. 16) comment, our support, in whatever way, should encourage them further to pursue their interest in public speaking. Well done all!

hope you will win!all the best..........................

I pray Christ, Krishna, Buddha and Allah that Arianna Kugendran should win. The kindergarten girl deserves.

Hi all kids ,

You all rocked and as said by fair judge there is no need for any participant to exit from casting votes.I was one of the spectator who was present when contestant no:24 master Ashish jayaprasad spoke .
There were wishes and congratulations for him readily after the speech.You may clarify with the person who set the mike for the children even. From low to high he received applause. Unlucky that he didnot get selected to the finals.
Most of them truly recognised the spirit of the child and its also reflected in the number of votes he has received. Keep rocking boy. Though you are a strabger to me, i wish all success and hope you get a lot of votes. Win or lose in this is not big as i can see some casting 2000+ votes in a day which i personally feel is unrealistic. May God bless you all.

I agree with dude. Fairjudge may like a participant but cannot ask any child to exit . Moreover after reading the comment from dude i again saw the video clipping of the children. I noticed that the words pronouced were clearly audible from contestant no: 24 compared with others. Next deserving child in my opinion was contestant no 6. Very brave boys in deed.Moreover it was a speech contest and not a story telling as in the case of contestant no:28 who already has bagged the first runner prize. It must be she who must exit and not the boy . But i donot ask to do so since i know and believe that each child did their best and whoever gets the maximum FAIR votes must win. Hope YMCA will take care of it. Keep up the good work YMCA !!!! more than the children you rocked by displaying the vidoes of all the kids. hip hip hurray...All the very best to Contestant no 28 and 6 .

It's just impossible for us to believe the votes are genuine, if votes can be increased by almost 20,000 over 1 day. I personally think parents should be more conscious when it comes to honesty vs glamour, is this the right value for us to inculcate in our next generation?