Pretoria – Secondary school learners in the SADC region will have an opportunity to express their views on climate change and what they think needs to be done to tackle the global challenge.
The Department of Basic Education has called on learners to put pen to paper and enter the annual Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secondary Schools Essay Competition.
This year’s essay topic is ‘Climate Change is having an adverse effect on socio-economic development in the region. What should the education sector do to mitigate the impact on the youth?’
Learners are expected to write an essay, explaining the aspects of the theme. They are required to:
- Explain the causes of global warming and how a change of one or two degrees in global average temperatures can have an impact on humanity (10 marks);
- Discuss the effects of global warming and climate change on the socio-economic development in the SADC region, and state the main challenges in addressing the effects of global warming and climate change (20 marks);
- Argue whether or not it is too late to do anything about climate change (20 marks); and
- Outline what the SADC education sector should do to mitigate the impact of climate change on the youth (25 marks).
All entries should be submitted to the nearest district or provincial coordinator on a date set at provincial level. The national closing date is 11 April 2014.
Three selected essays from each province will be forwarded to the Department of Basic Education by 15 April. The three national winning essays will be forwarded to the SADC Secretariat for consideration in the regional competition.
Criteria for participants is that applicants must reside in South Africa; they must be currently attending secondary school; essays must not be more than 2 000 words but not less than 1 000 (Arial, 1.5 line spacing for typed essays) and submissions must be the unaided work of applicants.
Submissions should be in English. The name of entrants should be the same as those that appear on the identification document (ID) or passport and applicants must be willing and fit to travel.
The SADC Secretariat has allocated a sum of US $1 000 as prize money for the national winners of the competition in each SADC member state.
The prize money will be divided as follows: first prize - US $500; second prize - US $300 and third prize - US $200.
Each candidate will receive the equivalent of the prize money in Rands.
The SADC Secondary Schools Essay Competition is now in its 16th year. – SAnews.gov.za
