Declamation contest: Bahria college students find themselves in a war of words

The contest was between 21 Bahria Foundation Colleges.

KARACHI: A total of 21 schools participated in the Bahria Foundation Colleges (BFC) Inter-regional Bilingual Declamation on Wednesday.

Schools from all over Sindh took part, allowing the students to test their abilities against each other. According to Bahria Education and Training Services director-general Commodore Zafar Iqbal, the aim of the Bahria Foundation is to provide “quality education at an affordable cost”, to which end they have opened up schools in various low-income areas of the province.

The declamation topics were divided between English and Urdu and further divided into various topics - both serious and humorous. The contestants mulled over rhetoric such as ‘What is better, being educated or intelligent’ as well as humorously engaging in topics, such as ‘Hum kaalay hain to kia hua, dil walay hain [So what if we are not fair-skinned, we have big hearts].’

Chief guest Rear Admiral Syed Arif Ullah Hussaini praised the students participating in the event as well as the foundation’s aim of providing quality education at an affordable cost. “After seeing these young kids go on stage to speak, we can truly see that Pakistan is progressing as a country,” he said. “The youngsters have positive minds with fresh ideas rather than the stereotypes that plague our older generations.”

Hussaini then congratulated all the participating students saying that even though they did not win, their efforts have not gone to waste since they have gained invaluable experience from the event.

Each school was represented by two students, one contestant participating in the English debates and the other in Urdu. A total of 42 students delivered their speeches at the event, each within an allotted time period.

The students livened up the event by using songs, poetry, anecdotes and dramatics within their declamations, quoting Nelson Mandela, Allama Iqbal and Albert Einstein, to name a few, and often had the responsive audience clapping enthusiastically.

The winner of the Urdu declamation was Mohammad Shahab from the Gulshan-e-Iqbal campus - which was also the host of the event - and the winner of the English declamation was Eisha Zaheer from BFC Gulistan-e-Sajjad in Hyderabad. The prize for the overall best campus was shared between two campuses -  BFC Gulistan-e-Sajjad and BFC Kandiaro.

Students of the host school, BFC Gulshan-e-Iqbal, also performed a couple of songs for the audience, which were appreciated by the listeners.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2014.