JOIN USThe students of more than 90 schools from many states of the country participated in the two-day literary event ‘Presidency Challenge Cup’, organised by the Presidency Group of Institutions.
The students took part in events like ‘Spelling Bee’, ‘Debate’, ‘Elocution’ and ‘Quiz’. Schools like Sree Kumaran Public School, Bangalore; Navrachna School, Vadodara; Chinmaya International School, Coimbatore; Mahatma Montessori Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Madurai; Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Cochin and other participated in the competition.
The programme began with an inspiring speech from G Thangadurai, the director of Presidency Group of Institutions.
“Public speaking is an art and can be nurtured only if one has the passion for it. I was a back-bencher and never got the opportunity to participate in any of the school events.
But one of my teachers inspired me to come up and since then, there was no looking back. I participated in quizzes, debates, dance competitions and sports. Students need to have a strong passion and patience to groom themselves,” he said.
Javagal Srinath, who was the chief guest, was equally inspiring and was greeted with a huge round of applause when he went up on stage. “I feel that children today are very talented and I don’t think that they should be pushed and pressurised to be in the top slot all the time. Their preparation and hard work makes all of them winners,” he added.
The first competition of the day was the spelling bee, in which the children were asked to write down the spelling of the word announced.
There were many participants for the other events as well.
“I have worked hard for the elocution contest and prepared two poems. I know the competition is going to be tough but I hope that I am able to bag one of the top slots,” said Shruti, a participant from Army Public School. The panelists belonged to different fields so as to give unbiased judgment for all the competitions.
“A lot of hard work and practice has gone into this programme. We are a group of ten participants from our school and all of us are participating in different competitions. I am participating in the spelling bee. I always watched it on the television and it is very exciting to participate in a national-level spelling bee,” said Vishal, a participant.
The two-day event saw the children interacting with each other and making friends from different schools.