Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion will spon­sor $100,000 to­wards this year’s Schools In­tel­lec­tu­al Na­tion­al Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion and the Schools Na­tion­al Tas­sara­ma Com­pe­ti­tion.

This was an­nounced by Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath as he de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress dur­ing the fi­nals of both com­pe­ti­tions at the NCIC Na­gar in Ch­agua­nas yes­ter­day.

He said, “The Cab­i­net would have ap­proved $50,000 for the In­tel­lec­tu­al Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion and $50,000 for the Schools Tas­sara­ma. A to­tal of $100,000 has been pledged. And so, it re­flects the em­pha­sis the Gov­ern­ment, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, and I, as the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, the em­pha­sis we place on the tal­ents of our young peo­ple and the cul­ture of our coun­try, Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

He said the event was a cel­e­bra­tion of the in­cred­i­ble po­ten­tial of the chil­dren of T&T.

“As a min­istry, we are ful­ly com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing pro­grammes and ini­tia­tives that seek to pre­serve and share our na­tion’s unique cul­tur­al nar­ra­tive. We recog­nise the im­mense val­ue in nur­tur­ing the skills and tal­ents that de­fine our her­itage and we deeply ap­pre­ci­ate the role of events like these in pass­ing these artis­tic ex­pres­sions on to the fu­ture gen­er­a­tion.”

He said many artistes start­ed on the stages of the two com­pe­ti­tions.

“To­day, they have gone on to per­form on some of the world’s most pres­ti­gious in­ter­na­tion­al plat­forms, show­cas­ing the re­mark­able tal­ent that orig­i­nat­ed in our com­mu­ni­ties. It is a re­minder that we must con­tin­ue to in­vest in and cel­e­brate the ex­tra­or­di­nary po­ten­tial with­in our youth, en­sur­ing that the world con­tin­ues to see the best of what our na­tion has to of­fer.”

Na­tion­al Chut­ney Foun­da­tion of T&T head Vi­jay Ram­lal Rai said the or­gan­i­sa­tion did not re­ceive any fund­ing for last year’s com­pe­ti­tion from the for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“Every year, we ask, every year we have to put on the show and then the min­istry has to de­cide how much they are giv­ing us. Even this year we put on the show and on­ly yes­ter­day and to­day we hear the min­is­ter is giv­ing,” Ram­lal Rai said, ac­knowl­edg­ing that some groups and in­di­vid­u­als who par­tic­i­pat­ed last year were dis­grun­tled over the lack of prize mon­ey.

Preysal Gov­ern­ment School’s Janavi De­ok­ie Ram­per­sad won the Chut­ney So­ca Monarch cat­e­go­ry yes­ter­day. She scored 424 points with her song In­flu­ence to our Cul­ture. Xhaiden Dar­ius, of Savonet­ta Pri­vate School, placed sec­ond with 371 points and Cele­bri T Charles placed third with 341 points.

The Sec­ondary School cat­e­go­ry was won by Hillview Col­lege’s Justin Sieu­di­als­ingh, who earned 445 points for singing about the re­cent road fines in his song Tick­et Bac­cha­nal. Sec­ond was Dabria Bap­tiste, of Holy Faith Con­vent, Pe­nal, with 393 points, and Cou­va West Sec­ondary School’s An­dria Roberts was third with 380 points.

In the Tas­sa com­pe­ti­tion, Av­o­cat Vedic School took the pri­ma­ry school ti­tle round with 1,690 points, fol­lowed by Bar­rack­pore Hin­du School (1,555 pts) and Debe Hin­du School (1,526 pts).

The sec­ondary school ti­tle was won by Vish­nu Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege with 1,746 points, fol­lowed by Bar­rack­pore West Sec­ondary School (1,682 pts) and Hillview Col­lege (1,661 pts).