PETALING JAYA, Dec 3 — Standard Six student Dhaanniya Mary Andrew has made Selangor proud by winning the national-level Poetry Recitation competition (primary school category) organised by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
The SK Subang Jaya student won over the judges with her recitation of the poem Be Like the Bees which was written by her coach Sharmila Ramachandran, and beat 15 other contestants from different states to claim the top prize.
Andrew’s victory was made even sweeter as her win helped SK Subang Jaya make history by clinching the national-level Poetry Recitation (primary school category) title for the third consecutive year.
Her mother Visalatchi Supramaniam told Malay Mail that Andrew is over the moon with her achievement after pouring blood, sweat, and tears into her training efforts.
“We were all so excited and happy. It was wonderful news because we waited so long for the results and when we found out, Dhaanniya was really, really happy,” said Visalatchi.
Visalatchi added that her daughter is an avid reader and often spends her spare time diving into fantasy books such as the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson novels.
Andrew is also passionate about mathematics and science and has expressed interest in becoming a veterinarian when she grows up.
“Her brother is a chartered accountant and she hasn’t decided if she wants to follow in his footsteps yet.
“She loves animals and she told me that she wants to be a veterinarian. She has a dog at home and she’s a real animal lover,” said Visalatchi.
The Poetry Recitation competition was part of the MOE’s Karnival Perpaduan Bahasa Inggeris 2020 where participants were asked to recite a poem around the theme of “One for All, All for One.”
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, judging took place through assessments of either recorded video submissions or live performances via Google Meet.
Andrew began preparing for the competition in June under Sharmila’s tutelage and the pair had 19 coaching sessions in total to hone Andrew’s poetry recitation skills.
She was selected to represent SK Subang Jaya out of 16 hopefuls from Standard Four to Six who took part in auditions starting on January 30.
Andrew then blazed through the preliminaries in July and went on to ace the district, state, and national-level rounds.
Sharmila said that Dhaanniya’s hard-working attitude has played a huge role in her success throughout the competition.
“A good performance is a marriage between a good poem and a good reciter. One element cannot exist without the other.
“A winner must come for practices with a smile, willing to adapt to changes in the poem and delivery styles no matter how many times it is done, and leave with a positive attitude to practise and improve.
“Dhaanniya and my past year teams all had that in them. It’s a pleasure to work with students who put in tremendous effort,” said Sharmila in a press release.
She went on to thank the parents of the students she has coached for being supportive of their childrens’ endeavours with poetry recitation.
Sharmila added that she hopes for a pool of professional judges to take part in future English language competitions in Malaysia to raise the calibre of the contests even further.
