Education ministry and British High Commission unite on ‘COP 26’ art competition

THE EDUCATION MINISTRY AND THE BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION have
collaborated to launch the ‘COP 26’ Child Art Competition under the theme ‘The Environment
and the impact of Climate Change.’
The launch took place at the ministry’s 26 Brickdam, Georgetown, headquarters with an eye to
the forthcoming key climate change Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting scheduled for
November.
UK High Commissioner to Guyana, Jane Caroline, revealed the idea behind the competition is to
get children thinking about issues linked climate change including prevention, mitigation and its
impact, and to express those ideas artistically.
Entries can be submitted in three categories: ages 5 to 7; 8 to 10, and 11 to 15 for students from
public and private schools.
Entries can either be paintings or posters, and the rules and competition details will be posted on
the Ministry of Education’s website and Facebook page shortly. Prizes will be awarded to
winners in each category along with an overall prize for the respective category.
Judges will evaluate how children’s art pieces demonstrate their belief how climate change can
be prevented; how to protect the environment; and how they see their personal responsibility to
bring about necessary changes 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,” the UK envoy said.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand said children must be integrally involved if catastrophic
climate change is to be turned back.

“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,” Manickchand stressed.
She said developing countries are caught in the vortex between protecting the environment and
earning revenues or irreparably ruining the environment in pursuit of revenue earning.

“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,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, Administrator of the Allied Arts Unit, Mrs. Lorraine Barker-King, said the
competition is to help promote greater understanding of the COP 26, and help forge
collaborations on climate and environmental issues between UK and Guyanese nationals.