(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) As the CARICOM Regional Quiz Competition moves into its first leg of the Zonal Round, St Kitts and Nevis will be making its second bid for the championship trophy which was wrested from them in 2004 by Guyana.
Set to take place in St Vincent and the Grenadines at the Anglican Pastoral Centre, New Montrose on 12-13 June 2008, the first Zonal Round will see six teams – Barbados, Guyana, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines – squaring off in a round-robin styled competition of which only two teams will advance to the Semi-Finals.
The formidable St Kitts and Nevis team of Cornella Caines, Yunoka Flemming And Kalea Clarke and Rademis Tyson (Reserve) will face team Guyana on Friday 13 June after which they will play Montserrat and must beat both teams in order to gain one of the two places moving on to the Semi-Finals of the Quiz.
On the first day Thursday, 12 June Barbados will face Saint Lucia and then St Vincent and the Grenadines, while Saint Lucia, having played Barbados will also face St Vincent and the Grenadines. The Winner of the Round will move on to the Semi-Finals.
In the second Zonal Round to be played on 17-19 June, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago will play off at the National Library in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago to determine which two teams in that Zone will make it to the Semi- finals.
The play-offs for the national competitions were conducted in May in order to determine those students who would proceed to the zonal rounds. Those competitions were organized and conducted by relevant national agencies in tandem with quiz masters who were trained by the CARICOM Secretariat.
The Semi-Final and Final Rounds of the Competition are scheduled to take place in late June 2008, in order for the winners to be presented at the Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in July 2008.
The Winners and Runners-up in this year’s Quiz are in for a treat of prizes and trophies donated by a number of Guyana based organizations including: ANSA MCAL, Citizen’s Bank Guyana Inc, Hand-in Hand Mutual Fire and Life Insurance Company, Frandec Travel Service, Giftland Office Max, Guyana and Trinidad Mutual Fire and Life Insurance company, Laparkan Holdings Limited, Medi-care Pharmacy, Le Meridien Pegasus, Neal and Massy Group, Scotia Bank, Topaz Jewellers.
Sponsored in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) the CARICOM Regional Quiz Competition, which has been organized in four stages – the preliminary rounds at the national level; the zonal rounds; the semi finals and the regional finals – is being conducted to mark the 35th Anniversary of the Signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
It is aimed at increasing the knowledge of students about the Caribbean Community and the integration movement in areas such as the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME); the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ); ongoing work in Human and Social Development such as the Pan Caribbean Partnership (PANCAP) against HIV/AIDS; the development of strategies to cope with climate change; CARICOM in the Information Society and CARICOM’s interface with the international community. Participants for the Quiz will be drawn from among middle grade students of secondary schools.
The first Regional Quiz Competition took place in 2004, and climaxed the activities of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. Then, Guyana, on its own turf, defeated St. Kitts and Nevis to gain the coveted top position in the competition and its captain Nicolette Boatswain, a student of Bishop’s High School earned the title of Best Team Player in the Competition.
