Lucy Grinker from Clarendon High School for Girls in East London came second in the 2013 De Beers English Olympiad that drew more than 7500 entries this year from high schools throughout South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique.
Daniel Peter, of St David’s Marist at Inanda, was the winner, with Iqraa Daniels of Oakhill School the second runner-up.
The top three candidates will be treated to a literary tour of the United Kingdom in December 2013.
This prestigious English Olympiad, an annual English competition which has run since 1976, is organised jointly by the Grahamstown Foundation and the South African Council for English Education (SACEE). It has been sponsored by De Beers since 1985.
On 5 March this year, entrants from Grades 10 to 12 wrote the three-hour examination. The theme this year was “Secrets and Lies” and the mixed-media anthology, compiled by the South African Council of English Education, was entitled “In Camera”.
Dr Diana Ayliff, Academic Coordinator, commented that: “While English has become the de facto lingua franca of South Africa, it can be notoriously badly written and spoken. It is therefore a delight to read such eloquent scripts written by the top English Olympiad candidates.
The overall growth in the levels of participation in the Olympiad, and the 2013 results are evidence of highly articulate South African youth and creative role models for the English language, which bodes well for both the development of the language and the future of our country.”
This year also saw an increase in the number of English First Additional Language (FAL) candidates as part of the English Development Initiative (EDI). Phillip Barton, CEO of De Beers Consolidated Mines, also commented: “This year 454 EDI candidates entered. This is a significant increase from the 315 entries we saw in 2012, and exceeds what we could have hoped for when we conceptualised the programme nearly a decade ago.
What is cause for even greater pride is that nearly 90% of this year’s candidates passed with merit or higher. It is also very pleasing to see two EDI candidates feature in the Top 100, particularly as this was the first time their school had entered the Olympiad.
The Top 50 candidates receive free-tuition scholarships for their first year of study at Rhodes University immediately upon successful completion of the matriculation examinations, and subject to meeting the university’s entry requirements.
A complete list of the top 100 in rank order is available on the following website: www.SAenglisholympiad.org.za immediately following the announcement.
Article Source: http://www.fever-blue.co.za/77089/news/article/clarendon-pupil-among-top-3-in-national-english