JEDDAH, 5 April 2008 — Vaseem A. Latheef won first position, Aleena Fathim second and Shalini Jethendran third in a speech contest organized by the Indian School Parents Forum (ISPAF) at Rafa auditorium in Sharafiyah.
Other winners were: Baseema Abdul Ghani, Wafa Naseem and Ayisha A. G. among the senior (above Class VIII) and Edvin J. Xavier, Fahana Jabin and Sona Sam from the juniors. Thirty-one students took part in the contest.
“Almost all participants nurtured fabulous dreams. Some wanted to be professional teachers like Dr. Radha Krishnan, others software professionals like Bill Gates, yet others cherished the dream of becoming leaders like Martin Luther King,” said P.M. Mayinkutty, ISPAF secretary.
“Many of the contestants had even made plans how they are going to achieve their goals. It was really great,” he said. “One thing is that there has been considerable improvement in the performance as compared to previous programs,” Mayinkutty said.
The contest was mainly for students from Class VI to VIII. Out of the total contestants, 25 were from VI to VIII while four were from higher classes. Winners were given prizes during parenting program organized by ISPAF.
The panel of judges comprised four Toastmasters — Ashokan, Shafiq-ul Rahman, Iftikhar Ahmed and Mahboob Ahmed. Judges also provided useful guidance and advice to the contestants.
The allotted time was 3 to 5 minutes for each speech. Only 50 percent contestants finished their speech within the allotted time.
