Access to Information's Advisory Committee chairperson Dr. Carolyn Gomes. - Norman Grindley/ Deputy Chief Photographer
THE GLEANER Company and the Access To Information's Advisory Committee, are banking on an upcoming schools' competition to get Jamaican youth in tune with the Act which was passed three years ago.
No date has been set as yet for the Access to Information Students' Challenge, but Dr. Carolyn Gomes, the Advisory Committee's chairperson, hopes students will get a grasp of the Act's importance when it is finally launched.
"I hope this competition will encourage youths to look at it (Access to Information Act) and see how it can affect their lives," said Dr. Gomes during a session on Thursday at the North Street office of The Gleaner, which initiated the competition. "They are the future leaders and it's good for them to come to the table now."
The 'Challenge' competition involves 14 high schools from four parishes: Ardenne, Calabar, Dunoon, Immaculate Conception, Kingston College, St. Andrew High and Wolmers' Boys (St. Andrew); Guys Hill, St. Jago (St. Catherine), Glenmuir (Clarendon), Manchester High (Manchester), Montego Bay High and Cornwall College which are located in St. James.
Each team will comprise four students and one teacher. They will respond to questions relevant to the school or its location.
Karin Cooper, corporate affairs manager at The Gleaner, says the company has been in dialogue with Government to determine an official launch for the competition. She says there is a tentative starting date for September, shortly after the start of the new school term.
Ms. Cooper says The Gleaner hopes the competition will be an annual one.
Although several of the schools have yet to select teams for the competition, Brenton McLean, a teacher at Dunoon Technical, says some students there have already been familiarised with the Access to Information Act.
"I have spoken to some of our sub-prefects about the whole thing and have given them a general idea and some of them were quite interested in how it works," he said.
The Access to Information Act was passed in Parliament in June 2002 to encourage transparency in how Government and its officials function.
Jamaica is one of three Caribbean countries to pass such legislation. The others are Belize and Trinidad and Tobago.
