JIS Heritage Competition Deadline Extended to Nov. 5

The Jamaica Information Service (JIS) has extended the deadline for the submission of entries for its annual Heritage Competition to Sunday, November 5, at midnight.

“The decision to extend the submission deadline is to give more students an opportunity to add to the discourse about a momentous event that will, undoubtedly, shape the future of the country’s development. This is of vital importance because the present generation of students will be the ones guiding Jamaica as a young Republic in the future,” Acting Special Projects Manager at the JIS, Charnele Henry, said.

Students at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels are being encouraged to contribute to the discussion surrounding Constitutional Reform through essays and visual arts, under the theme ‘Echoes of Freedom: Tracing Jamaica’s Path from Colonialism to Republic’.

Primary-level students, aged nine to 12, are required to submit an essay discussing ‘Should Jamaica Remain under the British Monarchy or Become a Full Republic?’.

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

Submissions should also include the title page and bibliography or list of references.

Students must use at least one JIS source as reference.

Essays should be submitted using the application form at www.jis.gov.jm/heritage-competition-2023.

Secondary-level students 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 with the completed entry form on the website www.jis.gov.jm/heritage-competition-2023.

Entrants 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, tertiary students are required to submit a photographic interpretation also 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 sponsors, 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, as submissions will become the property of the JIS.

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

For further details, persons should contact the JIS at 876-926-3590-4, Ext. 2132, and visit the competition’s landing page at www.jis.gov.jm/heritage-competition-2023.

In the event students encounter challenges uploading their entries to the landing page, they may email them to heritageessay@jis.gov.jm; heritageposter@jis.gov.jm and heritagephoto@jis.gov.jm.