A remarkable achievement for young writers, especially a home-schooled student from Tobago, who has been named the secondary school and overall winner of this year’s National Letter Writing Competition, standing out among hundreds of submissions from across the country.
This year’s National Letter Writing Competition, hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Postal Corporation (TTPost), saw over 270 primary and secondary school students submit entries. They were asked to imagine themselves as the ocean and explain how humans should take care of them.
Overall winner, Zada Junique Wilson, said her letter attempts to raise awareness as to why it is important to care for our seas.
“So you will come to the beach; you will see, like, the turtles, and they will see the plastic in the ocean, and they will mistake it as jellyfish, so you will go into the beach, you will see that in the Caribbean. Would you think you want to come back? No, because that’s a disappointing experience.”
Her mother and mentor, Natalie Trim-Wilson, said it is crucial for parents or mentors to offer children full support at all times.
“A child have a right to be educated, not so much go to school so once the child is being educated, all we have to do is follow through and do our part, guided by the curriculum, yes of course, because they must know, and once the support is there, give them, don’t apply too much pressure because trust me, she has no pressure in studying. She has more free time than study time, but when it’s study time she has to study. So once we are the mentor and the support, our children should excel in their own way.”
Minister in the Ministry of Public Utilities, Clyde Elder, believes this competition offers a celebration of something much more powerful than winning – it celebrates the creativity of the children of our beloved country, the power of words, and the undeniable urgency of protecting our natural world.
“I would say that it is a movement, a movement that marries literacy with environmental awareness, one that encourages young people to deeply think and to write passionately about issues that matter not only to their lives but to all of us.”
Top students from both the primary and secondary school categories were presented with their awards on Friday, including two special awards for outstanding work.
The top performers in the Primary School category were:
1st place: Connor Stewart, Scarborough Methodist Primary
2nd place: Evan Noyan, Palmyra Hindu SDMS, and
3rd place: Neikeisha Benjamin, Diego Martin Government Primary.
And in the Secondary School category:
1st place: Zada Junique Wilson, Home-school/Private
2nd place: Mickea Khanhi, Holy Faith Convent Penal, and
3rd place: Chaise Stewart, Bishop’s High School.
Zada Wilson’s letter will be submitted to represent Trinidad and Tobago at the 54th Universal Postal Union’s International Letter-Writing Competition for Young People in Switzerland.