Report- Essay Contest

Association for Rural Development
Quality Education and Livelihood Support Programme
Event Report

Date: 4th November 2022
Field: Kushadevi Campus
Name: Bidhya Neupane
Designation: Intern

Event Title: Joint Event from Kushadevi Youth Club and Kushadevi Campus, Panauti to Conduct “Intercampus Secondary Level Essay Competition Program” on 4th Baisakh 2079

Background

Writing is an integral part of life, whether it is for academic purposes in school, college, or university (also known as “Academic Writing”) or for professional goals in the workplace and in business (also known as “Professional Writing”). It facilitates the relatively permanent expression of thoughts and feelings to the other as well as the expression of thoughts, feelings, ideas, and beliefs. Writing fosters and improves critical thinking, creative thinking, thought organization, and communication abilities. Keeping this in regard, Kushadevi Youth Club in a joint venture with Kushadevi Campus organized an intercampus and interschool secondary-level essay competition program on 4th Baisakh 2079. 

The program was designed for students studying in grades 11, 12 and bachelor’s level. The topics for Oratory Competition were “My Country, My Pride” and “Youth Issues of Panauti Municipality”. These topics were chosen to encourage and aware youth of their responsibilities towards the country, society, and youth development. The event was completed in two phases: first for essay writing and the other for prize distribution.

The objective of the event

• To enhance, foster and improve critical and creative thinking, thought organization and communication abilities through an essay writing competition among the students of Kushadevi Campus studying at secondary and Bachelor’s levels.

Methodology

An essay writing competition was held within the premises of Kushadevi Secondary School with a joint venture from Kushadevi Youth Club and Kushadevi Campus on 4th Baisakh 2022. There were a total of 16 participants in the competition. The competition was held for two different topics for essays. The first topic was ‘My Country, My Pride. This topic was chosen with an intention of making students realize the potential of their country so as to make them responsible towards their country.  The second topic was ‘Youth Issues of Panauti Municipality’ which was given with an intention of making students critical of the issues faced by youths in their community so as to build their accountability towards society. The participating students could compete in any of the two topics and three winners were selected for each topic.

The program was held inside the classroom. Each participant was given an hour to complete their essay. The students could use any mode of language. Most of the students wrote their essays in Nepali and some submitted their essays in English. The essays were collected by the team of Kushadevi Youth Club. It was documented and submitted to the panel of judges for evaluation.

The evaluation was done in full marks of 20 points. Scoring was divided into 7 headings. It included an introduction, content, opportunities discussed, challenges discussed, conclusion, spelling and handwriting. Among all these headings, content had the greatest weightage for evaluation i.e., 5 points.

While writing about the topic “My Country, My Pride”, students mentioned the beauty, wildlife, cultures, languages, diversity, festivals, and other things that they were proud of. Similarly, on the topic “Issues of Youth in Panauti Municipality”, young students shared about the issues on education, political representation, health, sports, leadership activities, drug addiction and foreign employment. They also referred their suggestions to each of the issues. 

The panel of judges took their time to go through each of the essays and score them as per the set criteria. The result was notified by a notice while the prize distribution was yet to be done. Three winners were selected for each of the topics. 

For the topic “My Country, My Pride” the first position was secured by Dikshika Sapkota from grade 12 with a score of 13.5 points. Similarly, Dipika Sapkota from grade 11 secured the second position with 13 points and Ganga Sapkota from B. Ed. first-year secured the third position with a score of 12.8 points.

Bishal Sapkota (Grade 12) secured the first position with 12.5 points, and Prashna Sapkota (Bachelor’s 1st year) secured the second position with 11.5 points while Sanjaya Tamang (Grade 12) got the third position by scoring 10.5 points for the topic ‘Youth Issues of Panauti Municipality. 

Prize distribution was held on 22nd April 2022 inside the college’s premises. The AEIN team was present for the prize distribution ceremony. The representatives from AEIN presented prizes for each of the winners. Winners received some stationery materials as their prizes. After the prize distribution ceremony was over, all the winners gathered together for some pictures.

Achievements

1. The improved writing, analyzing and critical thinking ability of students through this program.
2. Students got to present their feelings and thoughts regarding the topics given.
3. The provision of attractive prizes increased the sense of high competition among the students and encouraged them to participate more in the future.
4. Kushadevi Youth Club members were successful to organize an event which developed their event management and coordinating skills.

Challenges and Learnings

1. The participation was low. The students need to be inspired and encouraged to participate in such competitions.

Conclusion

Writing essays develops essential skills and functions in the education of a student, thereby making them helpful to them. it enables students to build up a formal and organized method of writing that passes information without a doubt. Improving writing skills also helps in developing the necessary writing skills to complete other writing assignments. Encouraging students to participate more in such writing competitions can significantly have a positive impact on their personal, professional and academic careers. Therefore, the effort of Kushadevi Youth Club and Kushadevi Multiple Campus to organize this program is appreciable.

Annex

1. Details of Participants in the Program

2. Pictures of the program