Speech Contest 2011

This year's Secondary School Students' Annual Speech Contest was held on 17 February in Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium's Mirror Hall. The event was very successful.

There were 31 speakers from 4 different schools. The participating schools were Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium, Võru Kesklinna Gymnasium, Antsla Gymnasium and Varstu Gymnasium.

The 10-membered judges panel was also bigger and more impressive than in the previous years. The judges were Maila Vilu, Eve Unt, Eve Sõmer, Ruth Talmet, Tiia Allas, Marju Purge (all from Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium), Merit Kokk from Varstu Gymnasium, Krista Noor from Antsla Gymnasium, Greete Lepla and Annika Pindis from University of Tartu. And last but not least, Maive Salakka who was the host, the time keeper and the secretary all in one person.


This year's best speakers were:
1. Maili Sikk (Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium, Maila Vilu)
2. Toomas Häide (Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium, Ruth Talmet)
3. Mery Rosenberg (Võru kreutzwald Gymnasium, Maive Salakka)
4. Hele Maria Taimla (Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium, Ruth Talmet).


For the first time the audience could also vote for their favourite. This year's PUBLIC'S FAVOURITE was Sten Toom (Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium).



Compared to previous years, there were several changes.

• The first and the biggest change was that instead of one topic there were 3 different ones to choose from. In addition, two of the topics required the speaker to make a choice between two opposing statements. The topics were:

1. Hollywood has a positive/negative impact on society
2. Marriage is/is not an outdated institution
3. Lessons for the future

As having more than one topic proved to be a great way to bring variety and avoid monotony, the organisers will seriously consider using this format for the next competitions as well.

• The second major change was in the assessment system. When in the earlier years the judges have voted and chosen 5 best speakers, then this year every speaker was given points by all the judges.

Every judge could give maximum of 12 points per student. These 12 points consisted of four sub-categories for which 0 was the lowest and 3 the highest score. The sub-categories were:

1. contents of the speech
2. organisation of the speech
3. language skills
4. presentation.

Although it took some time for the judges to give their point, everybody on the panel agreed that this system should be used in the following speech contests as well.

Looking forward to meeting you at the next year's contest!