Are educational competitions making a difference in students’ lives?
Events like the Social Security Board’s Math Olympiad, the Coca Cola Spelling Bee and the Belize Tourism Board’s Social Studies Quiz have made educational competitions a popular part of the school curriculum. But are the contests making a positive difference in students’ lives? News Five’s Janelle Chanona tried to find out.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Today students from eight schools across the country gathered at the Princess Hotel to participate in the national finals of the ninth annual ADM Nutrition Quiz.
While the quiz is a competition, the experience is meant to encourage the students to apply the information to their lives. But are the boys and girls swallowing the idea of good nutrition … or are they simply regurgitating their textbooks?
Erika Goldson McGregor, Director, HECOPAB
“We try our best to incorporate new strategies as the years go by to ensure that what we are doing is meaningful at the end of the day. We have not analysed the data that we have collected so far but as soon as we do that then we will know exactly if it’s having any kind of positive impact on the whole behaviour change modification as it relates to eating habits, exercise practices. But we’ve had ad hoc feedback from teachers and so forth and they say that they have seen some of the students incorporate some of the information they’ve learnt in what they choose to eat during lunch, during break, and so forth.”
The theme of this year’s event was “The health of our youth is the strength of our Nation”. Because as nutritionist Sandra Collins maintains, it is never too early to live a healthy lifestyle.
Sandra Collins, Nutritionist
“It’s food habits. I think that people, they drink a lot of sugary things, they eat a lot of sugary things. If somebody drinks something they’ll put sugar in there. It’s just too much simple sugars, it’s sugars. I see that as the big problem. If you eat sugar you can eat a lot of it, it’s a lot of calories and you don’t really get full. Food habit is a thing that starts a long, long time ago so they’re there with it already. It’s not like we’ve become forty or fifty and all of a sudden you put on the weight. You lay the ground work at the ages of seven, eight, nine, ten so they have the problem already. The changes have to start way young.”
According to the latest national statistics, the major causes of death in Belize are conditions linked to poor diet like hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. For PAHO’s country representative Dr. Beverley Barnett, that reality reinforces the need for preventive health strategies and greater community support.
Dr. Beverley Barnett, PAHO Country Representative
“Imagine if sectors like Agriculture and Trade were also involved in the nutrition quiz perhaps then we could start to explore the reasons why it seems that the healthier a food is the more expensive it is. And I have to tell you that Belize is not the only country where this occurs. We could start to explore how to ensure that the poorer and more vulnerable people among us have proper nutrition. We could advocate the strengthening of policies and programmes that address proper land use and production of crops that will preserve the health of the people and contribute to economic development.”
After three rounds of competition, the eight teams were whittled down to five…
…but it was the ladies from San Pedro High who took top honours.
Eni Gonzales, Student, San Pedro High
“I try to eat healthy but then sometimes on weekends when we’re with friends then we still eat ice cream and those stuff.”
Janelle Chanona
“How bout you Alice?”
Alice Huang, Student, San Pedro High
“I Avoid almost all the unhealthy foods and I am on a very high fiber diet. I try to consult my friends and my daddy when he cooks on how to eat as healthy as possible. When I know all of those stuff then when I see fatty foods I can’t just eat that.”
Risela Rivero, Student, San Pedro
“I just have in mind that everything we eat in excess is bad for us so I eat everything but not in excess.”
Orange Walk Technical claimed second prize while Sacred Heart College settled for third. A national team comprised from the top three schools will represent Belize at a regional competition organised by the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute in October. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.
