Poi Lam High School, Pengkalan, Lahat emerged the champion in the 49th Rotary Club Group B English Debate held recently. Poi Lam’s Koid Yi Jiek, a Senior One student also won the best speaker award.
This is an achievement for students from a Chinese educated background to excel in an English language debate. All four students are from the Senior One (Form 4) classes.
Mr Chan Yoong Tat, an ex-debater himself, helped train the students. All four students underwent three weeks of intensive training to get themselves in shape. Mr Chan said they still had a long way to go. The school will be entering these students for the Chinese Schools Debates organised by HELP University sometime in July 2014. But first they have to make the cut in the Northern Zone Debate.
The school places great emphasis on its language learning programmes especially Bahasa Malaysia, English and Chinese and encourages students to participate in debates and other contests like spelling-bees, forums and speeches. It is hoped that by doing so, students’ interests and performance will be enhanced.
