【Macao News】Macao’s annual student English essay contest spotlights ‘an inclusive world’

Atotal of 61 students have been awarded prizes in the latest Macao-wide English Essay Competition, with the award ceremony held at the Macao Science Center last Saturday.

More than 1,000 students from 46 local schools and universities participated in the competition launched in 2021, according to its organisers, the Macao Professional Speaking Association (MPSA).

“Through this competition, we want to inspire the younger generation of Macao to look for ways they can bring about change in their communities,” the MPSA’s executive vice president Sandy Leong told Macao News.

“I’m always really inspired by the ideas and creativity that the students have. There were many entries that were written with flair and had a really unique voice,” she said.

The competition aims to provide a platform for Macao students to learn more about the global issues highlighted in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, such as climate change, food waste, gender inequality, poverty and sustainability.

 This year’s theme was “An Inclusive World”. 

Leong said, “We challenged students to discover what it means to live in an inclusive world, what the barriers to inclusion are, what injustices they see and what they can do about them.”

For 14-year-old Pui Ching Middle School student, Lao Ho Wai, who won first prize in this year’s middle school category, “Inclusive means we have to include every person around us and we have to accept people regardless of religions, languages and ethnicities”. 

Eleven-year-old Ng Weng Lam, a primary 5 student at Santa Rosa de Lima English Secondary School, said inclusivity applied to the environment as well. “No species should be left out and everyone is responsible to conserve the environment so that every species can live better in our world,” she told Macao News.

Apart from providing students with an opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills, “This competition helps the students foster their English communication skills and to increase their confidence [in using English]”, said Edith Cheong, head of the public relations department of the Macao Science Center.

Her daughter, 16-year-old School of the Nations student Wong On U, won an honourable mention for her essay “Our Future”, in which she expresses her desire to “live a future that is inclusive”. 

Leong said, “I really enjoy challenging students to think beyond their school curriculum. Children can be powerful agents of change.”