• Category

  • Content Type

Advertisement

Buy Jamaican Essay Competition a Success – JMA

February 23, 2005

The Full Story

The Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association (JMA) has hailed its inaugural Buy Jamaican Essay Competition a tremendous success, with several schools and students winning attractive prizes for their outstanding entries.
“It is my sincere belief that based on the standard of the essays received, our goal of heightening the consciousness of our youths has been achieved,” Doreen Frankson, President of the JMA, the major sponsor of the competition said today (February 23).She was speaking at an awards ceremony for the winners, held at the JMA offices on Duke Street in Kingston.
Miss Frankson made special mention of the 8 to 11 year-old category and congratulated the students, their parents and teachers for their participation in the competition.
The competition, which was launched last year October, saw an overwhelming response from schools across the island, with some 167 essays being entered from 50 schools. There were 20 entries in the open category.
In her address, Maxine Henry-Wilson, Minister of Education, Youth and Culture said the large turn out of schools at the ceremony signalled the success of the competition as well as hope for Jamaica’s future.
A major winner of the competition, she said was Brand Jamaica, which was important to ensure that Jamaica was successful in whichever sphere the country is represented, both locally and internationally.
“A winner today is Brand Jamaica, which ensures that wherever we go and whatever we do Jamaica comes out on top, whether it’s in Tourism or Education,” the Minister said.
“A part of branding Jamaica is to ensure that all our young people have a world class education,” she added.Minister Henry-Wilson congratulated the awardees and called on teachers to create innovative ways to assist students to develop their talents.
“I am asking teachers to recognize different talents from the children, stimulate their curiosity, let them know that life is about learning and the classroom is just one medium of learning and wherever they go, they can learn,” she urged.
Minister of Industry and Tourism, Aloun Ndombet-Assamba also addressed the students and their teachers.
She encouraged the students to understand the demands of globalization and the role they would have to play as future entrepreneurs, managers and consumers. “If we are to survive globalization, excellence must be the hallmark of our efforts,” the Minister emphasized.
The top awardees were Aneika Marsh of St. Aloysius Primary School in the 8-11 category; Kimberly Starege of Holy Childhood High School in the 12-15 category and Imani Gibson of Wolmer’s Boys High School in the 16-18 category.
Basil Stewart won the Open category, while Charmaine Bennett, a student of Shortwood Teachers’ College, who is pursuing studies in Early Childhood Education, won the Buy Jamaican Scholarship.
The winners were presented with cash prizes, trophies, certificates and computers. Other sponsors of the competition were Digicel and the National Commercial Bank (NCB).

Last Updated: February 23, 2005

Skip to content