On the art of public speaking – the closing ceremony of the first national competition for communications with the participation of Minister Przemyslav Kazarnik – Ministry of Education and Science

The President of MEiN congratulated the organizers of the competition and asked them to continue their efforts in organizational work in subsequent editions of this initiative. – We, the Ministry of Education and Science, will help in this organization, so that this competition becomes a permanent feature in the calendar of national competitions, which are very important oratory competitions, said Minister Przemyslav Kzarnik at the ceremony.

Contest Assumptions

The first National Speech Contest was aimed at students in grades four through eight of primary schools. Its goal was to spread public speaking and to form the practical skills of beautiful speech, argumentation, and persuasion. The competition consists of three phases:

• school stage – the written test examines, among other things, stylistic and linguistic as well as analytical and interpretive skills in the field of reading cultural texts,
• regional stage – in the written part it was assumed the preparation of an open letter or a speech on the indicated topic, and the oral task consisted in presenting the edited text,
• The nationwide stage – the task consists of delivering a 5-7 minute speech from the chosen category: Court speech – prosecution / defense, advisory speech – encouragement / deterrence, signature speech – praise / reprimand.

The competition was organized by the Lublin Education Office in cooperation with the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin and the Self-Government Teacher Training Center in Lublin. Honorary sponsorship of the project was taken over by the Minister of Education and Science. The idea of ​​organizing the competition was announced during the First Congress of Classical Education.

The assumptions of the initiative are in line with the directions of implementing the state educational policy in the 2021/2022 school year in terms of activities aimed at making the canon of classical education more accessible.

Competition path

1,805 students from 242 primary schools in 15 districts participated in the school phase of the competition. 47 students from 13 provinces qualified for the provincial stage. During the final match of the competition, 26 students from 11 provinces submitted their words, incl. Lubelskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, ódzkie, Małopolskie, Mazowieckie, Opole, Podkarpackie, Podlasie, Śląskie, Świętokrzyskie, Greater Poland. In their speeches, the finalists referred to literary figures, Polish historical figures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, or mythological and historical heroes of ancient Greece.