Minister of Education Priya Manickchand and other ministry officials are urging secondary schools to participate in the Sagicor Visionaries Chal-lenge 2014 competition that seeks to inspire students to use and develop STEM (Science, Techno-logy, Engineering and Mathematics)-based solutions to challenges in their schools or communities.
In 2010, the Caribbean Science Foundation partnered with Sagicor and the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) to launch the Visionaries Challenge. On Wednesday, at the launch of Visionaries Challenge 2014 programme, held at the National Centre for Educa-tion Resource Develop-ment, Education Minister Priya Manickchand lauded its methodology of bridging the gap between academic and practical application noting that it will produce better learning outcomes.
“We could have science in the class room and teaching on the blackboard and using the text books … but if we cannot teach our children to practically apply what they learn in the classroom whether that be in the science subjects or other subjects then I think we are failing them in some regard, and this is what this entire challenge allows us to do