About the Competition

Organiser

The Time to Talk Public Speaking Competition 2025/26 is organised by the Regional NET Coordinating Team (RNCT), Native-speaking English Teacher (NET) Section, Curriculum Development Institute (CDI), Education Bureau.

Aims

The Time to Talk Public Speaking Competition is an inclusive competition that aims to engage students of all ability levels to:

• learn public speaking techniques to hone their presentation skills;
• promote reading and creative use of English;
• experiment with the use of English to develop confidence in front of an audience; and

• develop research, collaboration and IT skills to improve their communication.

Design of the Time to Talk Competition

Time to Talk is open to students from public sector and Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) primary and secondary schools adopting local curriculum in Hong Kong. Students will work in a team or teams of 2 – 4 to deliver a public speech in English of 3 – 4 minutes, supported by the use of IT.

The competition comprises two rounds for both the Primary and Secondary Divisions, with Round 1 being conducted at the school level and Round 2 being the inter-school final, which will be held face-to-face.

• Round 1 of the competition can be conducted for internal selection purposes or to engage more students in speaking tasks within schools. This round is designed for schools to engage as many students as possible in public speaking. It can be school-based or it may be inter-school on a small scale (e.g. involving nearby schools, schools from the same school-sponsoring body). It is the school’s decision how they wish to conduct Round 1. It can be on a small or larger scale.  Small individual trophies will be made available to student teams who gain 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd place in Round 1.  These are, however, limited and will be given to schools on a first-come first-served basis.  Schools will be able to receive a maximum of 12 trophies for Round 1: four 1^st place trophies, four 2^nd place trophies and four 3^rd place trophies.
• Round 2 is the finals. This will be a face-to-face competition. This will be judged at a location yet to be confirmed in May 2026 for both primary and secondary students. Students would perform live and be judged by a team of 2 adjudicators. Primary and secondary schools may enter up to two teams.

In case of oversubscription, schools will be entered on a first-come first-served basis.