...Schools urged to participate

TO PARTICIPATE in the project, schools (grade nine, in particular) will be asked to submit preview videos of themselves to the Science Genius Jamaica selection panel by February 28. The submissions will be narrowed to the top 20 schools. They will then compete in clashes, from which the top five performing classes will be chosen. Those five will then battle it out for the top spot in Jamaica, culminating in May of this year.

“In many ways, we are pushing back against a system and a set of traditions that in reality, are the remnants of a dying colonial imperialism,” Emdin said.

“This is a place where people who have had their bodies, minds, and souls incarcerated by a philosophy of age-old time, saying that we’re gonna reclaim our education by using a culture that you have told us has no value,” Professor Emdin said.

As for the response towards the initiative thus far, Emdin said “It “has been overwhelmingly positive. People already feel it and have already been thinking about it, and it just takes one moment to really bring it to the fore, and if I can be part of a machine that allows it to become visible, then I’m just blessed with the opportunity.”

Science Genius is sponsored by the JN Foundation and was launched with endorsements from . Floyd Green, minister of state in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information; Dr. Andrew Wheatley, minister of science, energy and technology; with a show of support from Opposition spokesperson Julian ‘Jay’ Robinson and Science Genius mentors Tifa and Wayne Marshall.