Over forty (40) primary school teachers from the North Eastern Educational District attended the inaugural workshop to introduce an enhanced version of the Environmental Management Authority's (EMA) annual 'Hands-On' Competition at the Sangre Grande Civic Centre on January 28, 2010.

The teachers were introduced to the theme: "Nature in my Neighbourhood" which emerges out of observance of the International Year of Biodiversity 2010. They also discussed specific activities to be undertaken by their schools.

EMA's Senior Education Officer, Ms.Tisha Marajh, explained that the competition offered a unique opportunity to promote greater awareness of environmental issues among primary school children and their communities.

Schools will have ten (10) weeks to complete their projects in a wide range of specified project activities and are required to maintain a photo-journal of their activities. A limit of 30 photographs has been prescribed and all journals are to be submitted to the EMA by May 25, 2010.

Ongoing project monitoring will be one new feature of this year's competition and school visits in the area will be made by EMA officers during the period March 18-24.

Preliminary judging will take place from May 5 to 25 while final judging will be from June 2 to 11.

This year, the focus is on schools in the St Andrew/St David district with "Sustainability" awards given for schools in other parts of the country that have previously participated in the competition. An EMA team has met with school principals from throughout the region, which Ms.Marajh described as being a "Biodiversity-Rich" part of Trinidad and Tobago.

The EMA also hosted an opening workshop for the much anticipated Sustainability Category on January 29, 2010. This category is open to all Primary Schools which participated in the 2009 competition. As the name suggests, it is a way for schools to build or expand on their 'WATER' themed projects from last year and to promote an understanding of the importance of continuous environmental action to ensure sustainable livelihoods.

This particular group must submit their project description from June 2009 to May 2010 as proof of continuity and a documentation of efforts by both teacher and student(s). With only one round of judging, the deadline for this project description is April 16, 2010.