The winning team from the Joyce Samuel Primary School poses with Hon. Myron V. Walwyn and Principal, in blue, Ms Deborah James. Photo: VINO

The students of the Francis Lettsome Primary were keen challengers in the competiton but came out with the 2nd place trophy and prizes. Photo: VINO

Bregado Flax Educational Centre and First Impression Primary School finished in joint 3rd place. Photo: VINO

Robinson O'Neal Primary and St Mary's School jointly took the 4th place postion. Photo: VINO

Jost Van Dyke Primary School will be hoping to raise the bar next year having placed 5th this time around. Photo: VINO

The competition in the finals of the Ministry of Education and Culture’s annual Spanish Bowl was indeed intense among the eight schools that made it through. They were, in order of their scores at the end of the competition, Joyce Samuel Primary, Fransis Lettsome Primary, Bregado Flax Educational Centre and First Impressions, Robinson O’Neal Primary and St Mary’s School and Jost Van Dyke Primary.

The level of the competition was of such a high level that at the end of the final round four of the schools were locked on the same score. This took the competition into an extended tie breaker period that also was so intense that at the end of the competition the quiz mistresses were left with only two words on the list.

Minister for Education and Culture Honourable Myron V. Walwyn was on hand to share in the exciting moments with the teachers, organisers and most importantly the participating students. He alluded to the fact that the competition had achieved its objectives of promoting a higher level of learning in schools. “It is very clear to see the Spanish programmes are doing very well in our public schools so we want to thank you very much for the hard work that you continue to do,” Hon. Walwyn told teachers as he congratulated them with a standing ovation.

“Now one of the things that we mandate to the Ministry for the Department for Education is to create more academic competitions throughout the schools because certainly academic competitions help to sharpen our students mentally, it helps to build and boost confidence and it also creates an environment of competition where schools try to outdo each other and in trying to do that you also lift the standard of education at the same time,” said the Hon. Minister for Education and Culture.

According to the Minister, it all started with the schools’ debating competition, which in his expressed view and supported by others in the audience, went very well. “We had the Spanish Bowl this evening, we also asked for a general knowledge quiz to be done between the primary schools, all the primary schools and all the secondary schools and that would be coming on stream very, very soon,” said Hon. Walwyn.

“The intention behind all of this is that next year we want everyone to come up with the drive to win the school of the year, principal of the year and teacher of the year and we believed by fostering these types of competition we sharpen not only the students, we sharpen the teachers, we sharpen the administration and we improve the quality of education throughout the Territory. That is what we are trying to do,” said Hon Walwyn.

The competition was held with the other objective of bridging the gap in languages within the Territory. A call was also made for the Department of Education and Culture to consider the promotion of an annual French Bowl competition.

There was not a dull moment during the finals of the competition since there were bits of entertainment done. Parents did husband and wife, father and daughter dances to Spanish songs and school choirs sang lustily in Spanish as if it was their original language.