BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LITTLE Keshaun Alphonse of St. Lucia braved adversity and did her country proud last evening (Nov. 16) when she won the 8th annual COURTS OECS Reading Competition.
The event was held at the Sir Cecil Jacobs Auditorium of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank among Alphonse, Devshi Saxena of St. Kitts and Nevis, Kaylee Robertson of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Justine Jarvis of Antigua and Barbuda, Shaydan Laville of Dominica and Alysssa Goddard of Grenada.
Alphonse amassed 663 points, 23 more than her closest competitor Antigua’s Jarvis. The Second Runner-up position went to St. Vincent’s Robertson who tallied 634 points.
Alphonse won herself $5,000 and an additional $5,000 for her school, while Jarvis left the competition with $3,000 and Robertson won $2,000. All other competitors received a $1,000 prize.
Additionally, all of them received a gift bag compliments Harpers, laptops complements COURTS and trophies were sponsored by Warner’s One Stop.
The children - who were between the ages of eight and nine years - had the task of each reading the same narrative piece titled “The Merchant and the Money Lender” in the first round, and in the second, each was given a news article - which they had never seen before – to read.
They made their presentations before seven judges from across the OECS territory states, hoping to capture the coveted title and the attractive cash and kind prizes.
By the end of the first round, audience members were expressing that the representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines were the top contenders.
Some measure of despair was however felt when more than halfway into the second round the parents of Alphonse were summoned backstage to attend to her, as she was not feeling well.
Alphonse, who was slated as the fifth presenter, was the last to read her piece because of her bout of ill-feeling.
Prior to the announcement of the winners of the competition, the head judge informed that the children were reading at or above high school level and the strong points included excellent word recognition and level of confidence.
It was however noted that educators needed to pay greater attention to students’ eye contact with their audience, vocal indentation, reading pace and inflectional endings.
The announcement of Alphonse’s win was met with applause and, having accepted her winnings, the child shed tears of joy.
The evening’s proceedings were chaired by Nevis Education Officer Terres Dore and co-hosted by last year’s COURTS OECS Reading Champion Hrishikesh Srinivasan of Nevis.
The competition began in 2009 in Dominica. Since then it has been held in the different territories depending on the previous year’s winner. It has been held three times in Dominica, twice in Grenada, twice in St. Kitts and Nevis and once in St. Lucia.
And because Alphonse is from St. Lucia, all roads lead to that OECS territory for the 2017 competition.
Entertainment for the evening was provided by Infamus, Sylvester Masqueraders, Nevis Junior Calypso King Shomarie Mitchell and Vakiel Herbert of the Charles E. Mills Secondary School.
