Winners of UWCSEA-APP Peace Essay Competition announced! — Engaging Youth in Creating a Peaceful Future

The winners of the UWCSEA-APP Peace Essay Competition were announced earlier this month as the year-long partnership between UWCSEA and the Asian Peace Programme (APP) winds down. Promoting enduring peace is an aim both the UWCSEA and the APP share, and their partnership was forged as the school marked its 50th-anniversary celebrations.

One important mission of UWCSEA is to further promote peace through education, and as for the APP, which is housed in the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, it promotes peace through advancing policy discussion. A review panel composed of Distinguished Fellow Kishore Mahbubani of the ARI, Professor Kanti Bajpai and Professor Khong Yuen Foong of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, chose the winning essays from among ten finalists.

The winners who emerged are the following:

First place: Tanvi Kothar, Grade 11i: Thailand and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional – Transforming Governmental Frameworks for Long-term Peace

Second place: Kamila Hak, Grade 11: Building a process of trust between India and Pakistan on Kashmir

Third place: Vanshika Anand, Grade 11: Solutions towards peace along the Sino-Indian border

Professor Mahbubani, who is the coordinator for APP, underlined the importance of the youth being involved in the peace process, given our troubled times.

“The Ukraine War has reminded us that peace cannot be taken for granted. To ensure peace in the future, the younger generations must rally together and commit to making change in this quest for peace, in this the UWCSEA- APP Peace Essay Competition is contributing to this noble objective,” he said. 

UWCSEA College President Carma Elliot said that 50 essays from students in Grade 7 to 12 had been submitted as entries to the competition.

“When I first started discussions with APP, together we envisaged that this competition would be an opportunity to encourage direct student involvement in the peace agenda, focused on Asia, and promoting the student voice on critically important issues.

This gives me such hope for the future to know that our young people are engaging in the kind of conversations necessary to bring forward peace and progress,” she said.

UWC South East Asia celebrated its 50th year on Dec 15, 2021, having been opened by founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1971 on Dover Road.

The location where the former St John’s British Army School had stood was chosen by Mr Lee and others among the country’s founders as the site of a school for the children of expatriates “in a strategic move designed to support the economic development of a newly-independent Singapore.”

And for its jubilee celebration, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sent the school a heartfelt message, congratulating “one of the first international schools in Singapore”. /TISG

PM Lee acknowledges difficulties foreigners in SG faced due to pandemic in message celebrating school’s jubilee