Sunway-Oxbridge Essay Writing Competition

        Our deepest congratulations to Ms Evon Juliana Jayanthi (ELC teacher), Jolynn Tan Ern Xin, Tan Jiunn Shyan (Senior level), and Amos Wong Shi Yi, Koo Yan Xin, Tan Wei Qi, Too May Xuan, Leong Xin Yu, Sweta Thiagarajen and Teh Kian Ee (Junior level) on their achievement in the Sunway-Oxbridge Essay Competition 2021! 

        Since 2014, SUNWAY Group has partnered with Oxford and Cambridge Society Malaysia to organise the Sunway-Oxbridge Essay Competition in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. In its 8th year, the competition aims to promote and boost the proficiency level of English among the schools following the Malaysian syllabus, and equip the students with vital skills, such as critical reasoning and creativity, nationwide. As the Form 5 students were sitting for SPM between 22 February and 25 March, the organiser decided to extend the essay writing submission deadline so as to encourage more students to participate in this annual competition. 

        With the theme ‘Health and Wellbeing’, contestants in Category A (students in Forms One to Three) were to write an essay from 200 to 350 words based on the following context: “The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the challenges of online learning throughout Malaysia. What could make this better?”. Participants in Category B (students in Forms Four to Five) needed to write a 500 to 650 word essay on the topic  “The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the challenges of online learning throughout Malaysia. How could this be alleviated in the future?”. Meanwhile, a new category C was introduced this year and open to all Malaysian secondary school teachers. Participating teachers were required to submit an essay with the word count between 1000 and 1500 on the topic “The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the challenges of online education throughout Malaysia. How could this be alleviated in the future?”

        This year, 3359 and 58 entries were received from students and teachers respectively across the nation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the virtual announcement ceremony with a modified structure like last year, which aimed to honour and recognise the efforts of the participants as well as celebrate some of the brightest minds in Malaysia, was held on 23 October 2021. 9 students from our school, 7 from  category A and 2 from category B, were awarded ‘Top Participants’. Besides, Ms Evon Juliana Jayanthi, the former Deputy Head of ELC, also won a consolation prize. These brilliant writers creatively responded to the questions posed by addressing the challenges and providing constructive suggestions for improvement as well as less frequently proposed solutions from different perspectives.

        Again, we would like to express our heartiest congratulations to Ms Evon and the recipients of the Top Participant Award on their outstanding performance. We hope that they will realise their writing dreams in the near future.

Teh Kian Ee (J3 Melbourne)

As this was the first essay competition I’ve ever entered, I never expected to win any prizes and was just in it for the experience. Against all odds, I was awarded the Top Participant for this competition. Obviously, I have to thank Ms Chua for her advice and support throughout the writing process. This was a really eye-opening experience and I will definitely participate in more competitions like this in the future. 

Amos Wong Shi Yi (J2 Melbourne)

      It’s quite a shock to discover that I am one of the top participants. It was definitely out of my expectation, so I’m truly thankful. I’d also like to thank my teacher, Ms Lava, for assisting me along the way, or I wouldn’t have been able to even join this competition in the first place. I do have a suggestion though, maybe the organiser could consider increasing the word limit in the next essay competition so that the writers can elaborate further on their views.