Twenty-seven students from nine high schools across the island have accessed over $400,000 in bursaries from the fourth annual Insurance Company of the West Indies (ICWI) Group Foundation High Schools Essay Competition to cover fees associated with the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects they will sit in May/June 2020.

Among them, the number of exams total 113.

The students were awarded on Tuesday, November 5 during a presentation ceremony hosted at Ferncourt High School in Claremont, St Ann.

Chairperson of the ICWI Group Foundation, Valerie Reynolds, outlined the role of the foundation and the mandate of the competition.

“The foundation focuses largely on assisting schools and students in their academic pursuits. It is our mission to give back to the community and our essay competition is a creative platform that allows us to achieve the goal of the foundation while building knowledge around general insurance,” she said.

Ahead of the summer holiday closure each year, schools are asked to encourage students between fourth and fifth forms to participate in the competition based on questions on general insurance from the ICWI. At the start of the next academic year the entries are assessed by ICWI Brown’s Town branch manager, Sandra Touzalin-Butler, who is a former teacher. The writers of the three best essays from each participating school are awarded, with each winner receiving an amount to cover examination fees equivalent to the cost of six subjects; while each second and third-place finisher receives grants to cover four and three subjects, respectively.

Geraldine Palmer Allen, vice-principal of St Catherine High School, explained how beneficial the competition was for her students.

“The essay competition helped our students greatly. There was one student who had not paid any fees as yet and for him, getting the cheque was a sigh of relief for him and his family. It is our school’s first year entering the ICWI Essay Competition and we will be sure to return,” she said.

“Not only do we appreciate the financial help given, but the competition helped to prepare many of our students who do principles of business for their examination, as insurance is one of the areas covered in the syllabus,” Palmer Allen continued.