GUYANA has submitted the most entries in the Caribbean for the Sagicor Visionaries Challenge competition which engages secondary school students in solving problems facing their schools and communities, using Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

This was disclosed, on Tuesday, by science coordinator of the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD), Petal Jetoo in a telephone interview with the Guyana Chronicle.
According to her, Guyana has submitted 32 projects from 20 secondary schools across the country, and these projects can be viewed on the website: sagicorvisionaries.org/site/guyana.
She informed that the national competition will be held on Saturday, March 16 at the Umana Yana in Kingston, from 10:00 hrs – 17:00 hrs when these projects will be open for public viewing, and the projects will be evaluated by judges from both outside and within the country.
Ms. Jettoo added that students and teachers are expected to be on site at 08:00 hrs to set up their project entry, and each entry will be given a space that has electrical power.
According to her, the winner of the national competition will go on to represent Guyana at the regional competition on April 12 and 13 in Barbados against 12 other participating countries.
The regional winner will win an all-expenses paid ‘STEM Ambassadors’  seven-day trip to Florida, United States and Jettoo remarked that it would be great if Guyana came out on top as this would put the country on the map.
Entries for the national competition include: Richard Ishmael Secondary – improving literacy and numeracy in our schools; Bishops’ High School – fibre fuel; Diamond Secondary School – noise pollution; Mackenzie High School – school management system; and St. Stanislaus College – the use of STEM to promote healthy eating among students.
This competition which was launched regionally in January 2013 is being held by the Sagicor Group of Companies in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the Caribbean Science Foundation and the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC).
It aims to boost institutional STEM capacity in secondary schools in the Caribbean as well as ignite interest among youth for innovation in STEM in an effort to build and integrate sustainable communities throughout the Caribbean. The competition also seeks to integrate knowledge gained from formal and informal education to enable tomorrow’s leaders to build a more sustainable Caribbean.