P.U.C. Hosts Web Development Competition for High Schools
The Public Utilities Commission hosted a web development competition this morning for secondary school students from eight high schools across the country. The tech-based challenge, in some ways, replaces its predecessor, Raspberry Pi. This morning, we stopped by the Biltmore where students gathered to participate in the competition which saw serious prizes being afforded to the winning team and school. Director of Operations, Suzette Tillett explains.
Suzette Tillett
Suzette Tillett, Director of Operations, P.U.C.
“Actually, this year we are doing a web development competition. So this competition started in August of this year, where we actually trained the teachers while they were on summer break and when they went back into the classroom, they then imparted this knowledge on their students. Now what we have here today in the competition is the culmination of what the students learned by developing a website of their own.”
Isani Cayetano
“Can you give us an idea of who all are taking part in today’s competition?”
Suzette Tillett
“So we had initially about fifteen schools that did the training and started with us, but the actual competition today, we’ll have eight schools presenting. So what we’re seeing here is that each school gets an opportunity to present the website to the judges. The judges would ask them questions and then we will have who the winners are by the end of the day.”
Isani Cayetano
“How impactful is this kind of an undertaking on our existing education system considering [the fact that] we’re catering to students, in this instance?”
Suzette Tillett
“So what we at the PUC are looking at is the future, the digital future. We know, in terms of websites, we’ve gone through a pandemic where everything now is online, so we see the importance in this, in building that digital footprint for Belize and our growing students, and so we’ve extended this to the high schools. This is where they get their education, this is where we’re hoping that these future students would be the future inventors of something from Belize and so that is why the PUC has undertaken this initiative, replacing, I would say, the Raspberry Pi for this year, but we will see how we go along with that. Today, one of the big things the students are excited about is the prizes. There is a first prize of three systems, three computer systems, meaning everything from the monitor to the printer, to everything for their computer labs at school. The second prize person’s school will get two of these systems and then the third place will get one system to take home.”
