St.Teresa’s Institute of Education conducted the Ms. Education Contest on the 14th of October 2022. Ms. Education Contest is an annual competition organized by the college, where the students get to express their views and opinions on several educational topics and situations. The winner of the competition is crowned with the coveted title of ‘Ms. Education’ for that year. The contest is an opportunity provided to the students by the Principal of S.T.I.E. Dr. Sr. Tanuja Waghmare to exhibit and improve their communication and public speaking skills. The teaching as well as the non teaching staff contributed immensely to make this event a resounding success.

The contest was carried out in two rounds. In the preliminary round, which was held on the 7th October, 2022 all the 50 students had to participate. The participants were given a random topic on which they had to speak for a maximum of 3 minutes. They were given the same amount of preparation time. The professors then selected the top 15 participants which became the finalists for Miss Education. The finals were held on 14th of October, 2022.

The finals began at 10:30 a.m. in the multi-purpose hall of the college. Co-ordinator of the event Prof. Dr. Reshma Rodrigues explained the finalists the seating arrangements and the flow of the event. The judges for the contest Ms. Darshini Palav, Ms. Komal Prakash Kharat and Dr. Meenakshi Iyer Gangopadhya were introduced and felicitated by the student teachers at 11:00 a.m. The finalists were called forward and arranged on the basis of their ‘contest number’. Rules for the competition were read out by Reshma Ma’am. Following which, the contest commenced. Each contestant was judged on the basis of audibility, body language, and knowledge. Each finalist had to pick a chit which consisted of 2 different situations on a single topic related to education. The topics like a teacher’s role in imbibing discipline, her role to reduce suicide rates in students, role of humour in education or the contestants view on commercial tuitioning, teachers union, when to introduce sex education to students, etc. were included. She had to cover both the situations within the maximum time of 3 minutes. Each contestant got a time of 3 minutes to prepare themselves for the topic. During the 3 minute preparation time the audience were kept engaged by the hosts of the event with the help of games and quizzes.

After all the 15 contestants had spoken on their topics, the judges were taken to the conference hall. They deliberated on the results for the competitions for about 20 minutes. The judges returned to the multi-purpose hall at 1:00 p.m. The judges shared their positive feedback for the event and the contestants. They also gave a few suggestions to the finalists on which they could work on. The finalists were called to the center stage, this time with their names. Finally, the most awaited moment of the day had arrived and the winners were declared. 3rd place went to Natasha Fernandes, the 2nd spot was taken by Melita D’souza and Amrita Nakhwa was crowned as the ‘Ms. Education’ for the year 2022-23. The winners were presented with prizes. The winners clicked photographs with the judges, principal and the coordinator of the event - Ma’am Reshma. They were congratulated by their peers. Dr. Giselle D’souza concluded the event with her kind words. A vote of thanks was extended to all the people who were involved in making the program a grand hit. The event ended at 1:30 p.m.

This contest not only served as a means to test the general awareness of contestants as a future teacher but also enabled them to develop their self-expression and confidence. It facilitated them to improve their communication skills through articulation of speech and voice modulation. The skills and confidence gained by the student teachers due to the contest will benefit them to be better orators and facilitators.