The Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival is one of Hong Kong's largest inter-school competitions, and is organized by the Hong Kong Schools and Music Association. Primary and secondary school students across Hong Kong deliver speeches in English and Chinese. The festival has been running for the past 58 years.
The following is a list of typical events (in English) each year:
| Event List |
|---|
| Solo Verse Speaking |
| Harmonic Choral Speaking (Open) |
| Choral Speaking (Non-Open) |
| Prose Speaking (Open) |
| Prose Reading (Non-Open) |
| Bible Reading |
| Public Speaking Solo |
| Public Speaking Team |
| Words and Movement |
| Thematic Group Speaking |
| Improvised Dramatic Scenes |
| Shakespeare Monologue |
| Solo Dramatic Performance |
| Dramatic Scenes |
| Dramatic Duologue |
| Rehearsed Original Scene |
Students can place 1st, 2nd, 3rd or receive certificates in Honours (90 marks or over), Merit (80 - 89 marks) and Proficiency (75 - 79 marks). Most schools in Hong Kong recognize this event to be one of the most important accolades that a student can receive and it is often mentioned in most schools list of achievements.
The Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival is known as one of the prime events in which primary through secondary school students have the chance to challenge themselves in spoken English. Schools see first hand the confidence gained and improvement in their students English through their participation in the event.
Famous quotes containing the words schools, speech and/or festival:
“Good schools are schools for the development of the whole child. They seek to help children develop to their maximum their social powers and their intellectual powers, their emotional capacities, their physical powers.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)
“As the truest society approaches always nearer to solitude, so the most excellent speech finally falls into Silence. Silence is audible to all men, at all times, and in all places. She is when we hear inwardly, sound when we hear outwardly. Creation has not displaced her, but is her visible framework and foil. All sounds are her servants, and purveyors, proclaiming not only that their mistress is, but is a rare mistress, and earnestly to be sought after.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme, I have tried; I can find no rhyme to “lady” but “baby”Man innocent rhyme; for “scorn,” “horn”Ma hard rhyme; for “school,” “fool”Ma babbling rhyme; very ominous endings. No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)