CHILDREN from primary schools across Region Three brought out their vibrant personalities and talents as the national schools Mashramani activities continued on Wednesday.

The sun shone down brightly on the National Track and Field Centre at Leonora, creating a wonderful atmosphere for the bright, young talents to take centre stage.

Akeelah Patterson bravely began the day’s activities with her Dramatic Poem, “My Guyana El Dorado.” As patriotic as she was, many of her other colleagues followed suit, dressed in the colours of the Golden Arrowhead.

On the lighter side of things, some of the children even took a jab at recent events in the country, particularly the countrywide teachers’ protests. As the children clamoured for teachers to be paid more, it was evident that the teachers had their hands in cleverly crafting the lyrics. The dramatic poem performed by a young child from Zeelugt Primary, “Dem had to fix de money right,” showed just that.

By the time the first few segments of the competition were finished, the stands were filled to capacity, with hundreds of frisky but enthusiastic children screaming for the representatives of their schools.

The group dances — both with the upbeat versions of classical local songs such as Small Days and the devotional ones — seemed to be crowd favourites. But it was the dramatic poems in the eight-10 years category that really got the crowd going.

Jaden Williams from the Windsor Forest Primary berated the Guyanese norm of “mindin people business,” but also used his platform to highlight the horrors of speeding on the roadway. On the other hand, Jael Clarke, a student of the Arthurville Primary from the island of Wakenaam, highlighted that oil production in 2020 beckons.

The Department of Education in Region Three commenced activities celebrating Mashramani 2019 under the theme, “Celebrate 49 with victory in Mind – Rediscovering El-Dorado.” Nursery schoolchildren kick-started the celebrations while the primary school pupils followed. On Thursday, the secondary school students are expected to bring the heat as they put their talent on display.

Coordinator of the Regional Children’s Mashramani Competition and District Education Officer, Caroline Daniels, said the competition has so far been a lively affair.

The competition aims to promote the art and create a well-balanced education for children.

“We commenced [on Tuesday] with the nursery competition. We had 46 entries then and today at the primary schools competition, we have about 58 entries from various schools,” she shared.

For the first time, the children did jump rope freestyles as part of the physical display segment, according to the coordinator.

“This year we saw a lot of entries in this category and we are really fighting to enhance the arts,” Daniels said.