Essay contest winners hailed

Two Maltese pupils who won the 2005 Commonwealth Essay Competition were commended by Education Minister Louis Galea and Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon.

Eleven-year-old Andrè Bartolo from De la Salle College and 14-year-old Miguel Herrera from St Martin's College beat 5,000 final entries in the 2005 Commonwealth essay competition.

This year, the judges selected 25 winners from across the Commonwealth.

First established in 1883, the Commonwealth essay competition, which draws participation from over 1,100 schools across the Commonwealth, is an annual youth writing contest organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society encouraging creativity, academic skills and reflection by students from each of the 53 Commonwealth member states.

Chief examiner Charles Kemp said the examiners thought Mr Bartolo's entry had "excellent vocabulary, grammar and syntax". Dr Kemp said Mr Herrera's entry was "an accomplished, thoughtful and macabre story which is full of description and observation".