MEDIA RELEASE

REPUBLIC POLYTECHNIC ORGANISES 2nd NATIONAL BILINGUAL SPEECH FOR THE YOUTH

RP initiates the First National Bilingual Speech Contest for Adults and Senior Citizens

Singapore, 20 August 2007 – 12 participants made it to the finals for the 2nd National Bilingual Speech Contest. The final round which will be held on 25 August 2007, is jointly organized by Republic Polytechnic and Kranji Secondary School. Ms Ellen Lee, MP for Sembawang GRC will grace the event.

The contest aims at promoting bilingualism among students with judging criteria to include language mastery and presentation skills.

The preliminary rounds conducted last week saw 30 participants from 24 secondary schools competing for a place in the finals.  The participants were given 3 topics to choose from and they were required to make their presentation in both English and Mandarin.

For the finals, participants will have to choose a topic from 3 given themes -  ‘Globalization begins with Immersion’, The Singapore Idol should be more than an Entertainer’ and ‘Mothers should Stay at Home’.  The participants will also be given an impromptu topic during the finals.

Those that made it to the finals are:

  1. April Twu                                Tanjong Katong Girls’ School
  2. Koh Mingming                       Nanyang Girls’ High School
  3. Zhang Xintian                        Tanjong Katong Girls’ Schools
  4. Ryan Chong Chee Siong     St. Patrick’s School
  5. Luo Jiayu                                Anglican High School
  6. Bao Hanjie                             Raffles Institution
  7. He Qiaodan                           Chua Chu Kang Secondary School
  8. Poh Yi Jia                               River Valley High School
  9. Tng Le Hua                            Coral Secondary School
  10. Rachel Juliana Quah             Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School
  11. Li Yi Wie Tony                       Raffles Institution
  12. Chin Mei Ping                        Peicai Secondary School

The 2nd National Bilingual Speech Contest is part of RP’s Schools Outreach Programme. RP has been organizing events, seminars, workshops and talks specifically for students and among the programmes for 2007 includes WEBlog workshop, Career Talks, Science Camp and Eureka symposium.

In addition to the Schools Outreach Programme, RP has been actively organising events for the Woodlands community under its Community Outreach Programme.  This programme will receive an addition boast come October when RP initiates the First National Bilingual Speech Contest for adults and senior citizens.  RP will work together with Woodlands CCC and 4PM for this event.

Mr Ang Keng Loo, Senior Director of Student Affairs said “This competition enables RP to effectively contribute to the promotion of bilingualism in Singapore.  In addition, this event also serves as a way to create a holistic programme approach since the First National Bilingual Speech Contest is for adults and senior citizens.”

The differentiating factor that separates the adults and senior citizens category from the student category is that the adult participants can either choose Eng-Chinese, Eng-Malay or Eng-Tamil for their presentations.

--- END ---

About Republic Polytechnic

The first educational institution in Singapore to adopt the Problem-Based Learning approach for all its diploma programme, Republic Polytechnic has five schools and two centres offering twenty nine diploma courses in Information & Communications Technology, Engineering, Applied Science, Technology for the Arts, Sports, Health & Leisure, Innovation and Enterprise, and Culture and Communication. Republic Polytechnic is committed to nurturing innovation and entrepreneurial learning in an environment that develops problem-solving process skills and a life-long learning attitude. Its holistic, broad-based curriculum, covering culture, enterprise development and cognitive processes, prepares students for an active and meaningful role in society. Republic Polytechnic strives for excellence by achieving various national and international accreditations, including People Developer Standards, ISO9001, ISO14001, OHSAS 18001, Singapore Quality Class, Singapore Innovation Class, and the Singapore Health Awards (Gold). For more information, visit http://www.rp.sg

For media enquiries and students interviews, please contact:

Benjamin Chow (Mr)
Administrative Officer, Office of Corporate Communications, Republic Polytechnic
Tel: 6510 3251                                          
Email: benjamin_chow@rp.sg

Shirleen Lu (Ms)
Senior Associate, iBRAND Strategy Group Pte Ltd
Mobile: 9766 3514  Tel : 6222 8968
Email: shirleen@ibrand.com.s