Entries for 2023 JIS Heritage Competition Open September 18

The Jamaica Information Service (JIS) will begin accepting entries for its annual Heritage Competition on Monday, September 18.

Primary, secondary and tertiary-level students will again have an opportunity to use essays, posters, or photographs to demonstrate their knowledge on a topical issue permeating the Jamaican society.

For this year’s competition, students will be asked to contribute to the discussion surrounding constitutional reform under the theme ‘Echoes of Freedom: Tracing Jamaica’s Path from Colonialism to Republic”.

“This year, we are exploring the topic of Jamaica’s intent to become a republic. As a move that will impact the entire country, we want to get our youth involved in the conversation by sharing their views on the matter,” said Acting Special Projects Manager at the JIS, Charnele Henry.

“We are looking forward to students from the primary, secondary and tertiary levels submitting excellent entries for the competition this year. I encourage parents and teachers to work alongside the students to ensure they put forward their best pieces, so that they can walk away with the top prizes in the respective categories,” she added.

For the essay segment of the competition, primary-level students, aged nine to 12, are invited to express their views on the topic ‘Should Jamaica remain under the British monarchy or become a full republic?’.

The essay should be 400 to 500 words and will be judged on relevance to the topic, originality, accuracy and analysis of research data, writing style and language skills.

Essay submission should include the Title page and Bibliography or List of References.

Students must use at least one JIS source as reference, and entries submitted using the application form at www.jis.gov.jm.

The poster competition is open to secondary-level students, who are required to use graphics or illustrations to design a poster depicting the topic ‘Echoes of Freedom: Tracing Jamaica’s Path from Colonialism to Republic’.

Posters should be no larger than 11 inches x 17 inches (landscape or portrait) and include no other image but those provided on the JIS website through Dropbox.

All pieces must be submitted by filling out the entry form on the website, www.jis.gov.jm.

Entrants in the poster illustrated category should print and deliver the form along with the poster to the JIS Head Office in Kingston or the Regional Office in Montego Bay.

Meanwhile, for the photo competition, tertiary students will be required to submit a photographic interpretation on the topic: ‘Echoes of Freedom: Tracing Jamaica’s Path from Colonialism to Republic”.

Photographs will be judged on understanding of the topic, originality, composition, technique and impact.

Any registered tertiary-level student attending an accredited Jamaican institution is eligible to enter.

Photos should be submitted using a cloud storage service such as Dropbox, SkyDrive or Google Drive.

Entrants must indicate the name of the institution and area of study being pursued.

Prizes will be awarded to the top-three participants in each component of the competition, courtesy of sponsorship, including financial and tertiary institutions, technology companies and bookstores.

The JIS reserves the right to disqualify any entry that does not meet the requirements specified in the guidelines that have been posted on the agency’s website.

Students will be penalised for plagiarism.

Participants are encouraged to keep copies of their entries, and all submissions become the property of the JIS.

Relatives of JIS staff members are not eligible to participate in the competition.

The deadline for the submission of entries to all three categories of the JIS Heritage Competition is Tuesday October 31, 2023.

For further details, persons can contact the JIS at 876-926-3590-4, Ext. 2132 or by email: heritagephoto@jis.gov.jm, heritageposter@jis.gov.jm or heritageessay@jis.gov.jm as well as visiting the website at www.jis.gov.jm.