(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Thirteen Member States were represented at the workshop organized for quiz masters by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in preparation for its second regional school quiz to mark the 35th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas
Sponsored by the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) in collaboration with CARICOM and the Government of St Kitts, the one-day workshop held on 4 April 2008, at the Ocean Terrace Inn in Basseterre, St Kitts was designed to build the capacity of quizmasters to conduct competitions in CARICOM Member States and Associate Members.
Thirty-four quiz masters participated in the workshop and expressed their commitment to conducting the national leg of the quiz.
Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, the Honourable Dr Denzil Douglas who greeted the workshop, welcomed the participants to the twin islands and expressed his pleasure at hosting the workshop, noting that the second regional quiz is a welcome activity of the Community.
He pledged his country’s support for the quiz and charged participants to take their responsibilities seriously and to work assiduously to ensure that the second staging of the quiz is as successful as or even more successful than the first staging to mark the 30th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
The CARICOM Regional Quiz Competition is aimed at increasing the knowledge of students on 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 quiz is being organized in four stages: the preliminary rounds at the national level, the zonal rounds; the semi finals and the regional finals.
The play-offs for the national competitions are slated to commence in May in order to determine those students who will proceed to the zonal rounds. These competitions will be organized and conducted by relevant national agencies in tandem with the trained quiz masters.
At the zonal level, the Region will be divided into three geographic zones. Each grouping comprising approximately five countries will compete against each other on a round-robin basis over four days, between late May and early June.
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 29th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in July 2008.
