A national competition of public speaking in English was carried out between the youth of 16-20 age. The theme of the competition was Speculation on Our Future.
The first round was held on March 10 and around 100 volunteers took participation in it. 2 finalists - the 12th grader of Guivy Zaldastanishvili American academy in Tbilisi, Ketevan Tsereteli and 11th grader of Rustavi public school #26, Mariam Balabueva were identified from the 10 participants in the second round, on March, 11. They will depart to London to participate in the final of the competition. The winner will receive a prize personally from Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace. The members of the jury are the Minister of Education and Science, Dimitri Shashkini, UK Ambassador to Georgia, Denis Keefe, the Head of the British Council in Georgia, Paul Doubleday as well as the General Director of HSBC bank, Guy Lewis, the Director of BP, Neil Dunn and the representatives of the Embassy of United States Georgia.
The competition was organized by the representatives of the English-Speaking Union in Georgia. ESU unifies more than 50 countries of the world in it. Georgia became the member of the organization in 1998. ESU encourages the effective use of English to enforce friendship and mutual understanding. The protector of the organization is Queen Elisabeth II, the president is Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip. For a several period, the chairman of ESU was Sir Winston Churchill.
ESU-Georgia carries out the public speaking competition in English between the youngsters of 16-20 age throughout the whole Georgia every year.