Trinidad and Tobago schools reach semifinals of Solve for Tomorrow programme

IN the 11th edition of the Samsung Electronics Solve for Tomorrow (SFT) competition, three Trinidad and Tobago schools advanced to the semifinal stage.

Of the 202 participating schools from TT, Five Rivers Secondary School; Holy Faith Convent, Penal; and Queen’s Royal College beat the competition.

The selected schools were among the ten teams preparing for the next stage of SFT with competing students from Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

SFT is an educational programme that uses skills in science, technology, engineering and maths
(STEM) to make a difference in communities. The competition encourages students to be proactive by transforming their innovative ideas into solutions with the aim of improving their communities.

A release from Samsung Electronics on August 20 said this year the programme celebrated a notable increase in participation, with a total of 2,922 proposal submissions presenting solutions to collective problems affecting communities, as compared to 2,304 last year.

The programme also boasted a 45 per cent increase in student and teacher participation – 12,821, up from 8,838 last year.

Samsung corporate citizenship manager Maria Hernandez said, “The support of our allies in each country has been crucial to the success of this programme.

"Year after year, we have strengthened alliances with ministries of education in each country, universities, foundations, business chambers, and multilateral organisations through their valuable contributions that strengthen our programme.”

Among of the major objectives this year were increasing coverage in the participating countries and encouraging more female participation in STEM activities. To achieve this, Samsung Electronics collaborated with Glasswing International to hold introductory design thinking
workshops for students and teachers to provide them with the tools to refine their proposals before submitting to the first stage of SFT 2024.

The release said, “It is very encouraging that in this year’s SFT, in five countries, more female students registered than male students. Notably, in TT 55 per cent of the teams comprised female students, followed by Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.”

This year's proposals from TT students mainly focused on safety and inclusion topics. Proposals from other countries emphasised environment and mental health followed by education, social inclusion-mental health and the improvement of public or community services.