Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
At Left: Fabian Barracks (left), Francois Douglas (second left), Nicole Barton (centre) teacher at Wolmer's Boys School, Wmoloki McPherson (second right) and Ossain Knight. The Wolmer's Boys School team was one of the teams with the best overall projects in the Access to Information Students' Challenge Competition. The occasion was a luncheon held at The Gleaner Company's North Street offices yesterday.
At Right: Brenton McLean (left), teacher at Dunoon Technical High School and students Nico Tyndale (second left), Terry-Ann Goodridge (centre), Donald Hall, (second right) and Samuel Thompson (right) principal. Sanya Smith is in the forefront.The Dunoon Technical High School team was one of the teams with the best overall project in the Access to Information Students' Challenge Competition. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
DUNOON TECHNICAL High and Wolmer's Boys School yesterday walked away with the prize for best overall project in the Access to Information (ATI) Students' Challenge Competition.
The Gleaner Company and the Access to Information Advisory Stakeholders Committee sponsored the competition, which began in October and ended in January.
The ATI came into full effect in 2005 and allows citizens to request and receive government documents except for those related to specified areas such as national security and the privacy of individuals.
LETTING PEOPLE KNOW
The aim of the competition was to bring the ATI into the forefront of people's minds; so people can know that the Act works and that they can use it.
"The team learnt a lot from this experience. It helped us to develop analytical skills," said Francois Douglas, student at Wolmer's Boys School.
"For Dunoon, it was a lot of fun. We learnt proper channels on how to get information," Nico Tyndale, student at Dunoon Technical said during the awards ceremony, held at The Gleaner's North Street headquarters.
And Jermaine Allen of Glenmuir High School in Clarendon said although the competition was tedious, his team learnt the importance of time management.
Glenmuir won the prize for the team with the most practical request.
Meanwhile, Brenton McLean, teacher at Dunoon Technical High, commended the sponsors for embarking on the ATI competition.
He said the competition has made him more aware of the red tape involved in getting information from government agencies.
SEVERAL DIFFICULTIES
The students cited several difficulties they experienced while accessing information from the various agencies, including the length of time some agencies took to respond to their requests.
In his remarks, Information Minister Senator Burchell Whiteman said the competition "has shown up a few things which I think we will learn from and respond to,".
Each school submitted four questions to the Access to Information officer at the relevant ministries or agencies, which was of interest to the particular locality of the school.
Some of the questions centred on the cleaning up of Kingston Harbour and the funding available for it, how the education budget is allocated and the Kennedy Grove issue.
The teams then created a log book documenting all activities relating to questions submitted.
"I was very impressed with the breadth both of local but also of national interest in those questions," said Dr. Carolyn Gomes, chairman of the ATI Stakeholders Committee.
Six schools were involved in the competition but three dropped out along the way. Every student received a bonus for participating. The teachers for the teams with the best overall project also got $13,000 each.
