British High Commission and Education Ministry launches Child Art Competition to address climate change

The British High Commission, Georgetown and the Ministry of Education today launched the COP 26 Child Art Competition. The competition is being conducted under the theme “The Environment and the impact of Climate Change.”

The initiative is a result of an important climate change conference that will be held in November of this year, the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties – ‘COP 26’.

Speaking at today’s launch held in the boardroom of the Ministry of Education’s 26 Brickdam Office, Her Excellency Jane Caroline, UK High Commissioner to Guyana said that the idea of the competition is to get children thinking about issues concerning climate change such as prevention, mitigation and its impact and to express themselves in art.

She said that the judges will be looking at how children express themselves in terms of how they believe climate change can be prevented, how to protect the environment and how they see their personal responsibility to bring about the change necessary to address the issue.

“So let’s express that and have a competition and really think about climate change, ahead of the conference in the UK later this year,” she remarked.

The Honourable Minister of Education Priya Manickchand said that it is known that if there is to be any change, children have to be involved in the process whereby they are taught from a very young age about the new habits that need to be embraced.

“We have to reverse the way we treat our environment. The way we use energy. And the way we are working to conserve and preserve the environment around us,” the Education Minister noted.

She said that protecting the environment has always been a priority for her Government. Minister Manickchand explained that for developing countries there is a choice that has to be made between protecting the environment and not earning revenue or earning revenue and damaging the environment. However, she said that with innovative leadership, Guyana has been able to earn revenue while protecting its environment.

Minister Manickchand said that the competition will provide Guyanese especially the young participants with the opportunity to reinforce what is known about environmental protection. “I think there could be no better way than to inculcate in our next generation, or next generations the attitude of responsibility for the environment, and to do that through art can be no better way in my view,” she remarked.

The Administrator of the Unit of Allied Arts, Mrs. Lorraine Barker-King gave an overview of the competition and said that it intends to promote a greater understanding of the COP 26 and to establish collaborations between the people of the United King and the Co-operative Republic of Guyana on climate and environmental issues.

She said that entries can be submitted in the 5 to 7 age group, 8 to 10 group and the 11 to 15 group.

Mrs. Barker-King noted that the competition is not limited to children in the public school system but to all children in Guyana within the three groups. The entries can either be a painting or a poster. Mrs. Barker-King said that all the rules and competition details will be posted on the Ministry of Education’s website and Facebook page. Prizes will be awarded to winners in each category along with an overall prize for the category.