National schools speech relay challenge 2014 on

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The National Schools Speech Relay Challenge (NSRC) is a brain-child of Contemporary Affairs Foundation (CA-F).

The National Schools Speech Relay Challenge (NSRC) is a brain-child of Contemporary Affairs Foundation (CA-F).

For the past 10 years, CA-F has enduringly and successfully facilitated debate and public speaking across the country.

It has the experience needed in running competitions. Winners at national level have had the opportunity to represent the country at international competitions.

NSRC is a public speaking challenge that draws competitors from across national secondary and high schools to display their talent in the art of public speaking.

The competition is facilitated in partnership with Intwasa and runs during the annual Intwasa Arts Festival in Bulawayo.

This year, the competition will be used to select 10 individual finalists who will compete at the Zimbabwe International Public Speaking Championship for the single slot to represent Zimbabwe at the May 2015 International Public Speaking Competition in London.

Each participating school will enter a team of three speakers to constitute a speech relay team; the opener, developer and the closer.

The opener goes to the podium, speaks for three minutes focussing on introducing the topic and giving broad frame of the speech. The developer will follow the opener, thoroughly developing the ideas brought out by the opener, building a moving speech which should last for four minutes. The closer ties the speech together, giving a conclusion for four minutes.

The 2012 winner was Musawenkosi Joko, a Lower Six student at Matopo High School in Matabeleland South who went on to represent the country at the International Public Speaking Challenge (IPSC) in London in 2013.

In 2014, the IPSC Zimbabwe representative was Zibusiso Ndlovu from Mtshabezi High School. The competition is hosted and run by the English Speaking Union.

Contemporary Affairs, a Pan-African Social enterprise, is the only fulltime debate and public speaking capacity building organisation in Zimbabwe.

It is a pioneer on the African circuit in the delivery of top-end communication competence programmes.

Its global peers are the English Speaking Union UK, the International Debate Education Association based in Netherlands and servicing East and Central Europe) and the Malaysia Institute for Public Speaking and Debate the hosts of the 2014 to 2015 World Universities Debate Championships).

CA-F has been mandated by the two ministries of Education to facilitate debate and public speaking programmes in Zimbabwean schools (primary, secondary and tertiary levels).

– Intwasa.