10 winners of ELS English essay writing competition get MOE recognition

KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 (Bernama) -- The top 10 winners of ELS English Language Ambassador Award Essay Writing Competition were given recognition by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in a prize presentation ceremony at MOE in Putrajaya yesterday. 

A student from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Jenjarom, Selangor, Lim Zi Chye, who won the Grand Prize, walked away with a one-week study tour to the University of Adelaide, Australia, inclusive of return flight tickets and accommodation, a RM2,000 cash award, a trophy, a certificate of achievement, and a one-year Just English Magazine subscription. 

Clairra anak Freddy from SMK St Anthony, Sarawak was the first runner-up while Isabel Ooi Yo Yi from SMK Seri Kembangan, Selangor was the second runner-up. They won a cash prize of RM1,500 and RM750 respectively, as well as a trophy, a certificate of achievement, and a one-year Just English Magazine subscription.

The prizes were presented by MOE Curriculum Development Division deputy director Sarina Salim, who was respresenting Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying. 

ELS director of Group Strategy and Alliances, Sean Chee, said the objective of the programme was to promote English language excellence among Forms 4 and 5 students.

“We cannot achieve this by ourselves. This is why we invited our university partners Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and the University of Adelaide to join us on this journey.

“They say, ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ and this is a clear illustration of the efforts required to elevate the English standards among our students,” he said in a statement. 

The competition, a new CSR initiative that ELS launched in 2022, consists of an online English language writing programme that prepares students for their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) English exam. It gathered 19,154 students from Form 4 and Form 5 from 247 schools nationwide.

According to the statement, after registering via DELIMa, the national digital learning platform, students were then enrolled in ELS's eight-week online interactive English Language writing programme to prepare for both the competition and SPM English Writing.

Those who completed the programme received co-curriculum marks from MOE and ELS selected the 10 best essay submissions for judging while shortlisted candidates were interviewed to determine their rankings.

Sarina said MOE has many initiatives to promote English language proficiency in schools and lauded private institutions like ELS Language Centres’ initiative in promoting English language among students. 

“We encourage such public-private and international partnerships as they bring about a healthy ecosystem for developing competent talent all across our national schools. And we look forward to the continuation of programmes like the ELS English Language Ambassador Award in the years to come," she said.

Also present at the ceremony were the students’ parents, representatives from MOE, Australian High Commission, ELS and its strategic partners, the University of Adelaide, UPM, UTM, Sunago Education and Just English.

-- BERNAMA