Harrison College defeated Combermere School’s ‘C’ debating team to emerge the winners of the National Council for Science and Technology’s (NCST) school’s science lecture series and debating competition.

Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Division of Trade, Industry and Commerce, Ernesta Drakes, presented the Minister’s Challenge Trophy to the victorious school at the end of the keenly contested battle, today at The Grand Salle, Tom Adams Financial Centre, St. Michael.  Harrison College amassed 162.0 points as compared with Combermere’s 148.5.

The teams competed on the topic Science, Technology and Innovation are essential for our future development; but we in Barbados have not seized on their importance and are doing little to encourage and promote their development.

Harrison College will represent Barbados at an overseas science forum, while runners-up Combermere will be participants in the Caribbean Youth Science Forum in Trinidad and Tobago.

Meanwhile, Director of the NCST, Lennox Chandler, stressed the importance of science and technology to the economic and social development of Barbados. He said it was beneficial to maintaining a low infant mortality rate; help to eradicate certain types of diseases; could increase one’s life-span as a result of the application of modern medicinal treatments; and provided better living and working conditions and greater social protection.

Mr. Chandler acknowledged that there were many graduates in science whose expertise was under utilised. “We have a lot of graduates in Organic Chemistry and Bio-Chemistry from the University of the West Indies, but what are we doing? The problem is that we are sitting back and waiting for things to come from somewhere else,” he stressed.

jwilson@barbados.gov.bb

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