The Eric Williams Memorial Collection (EWMC) at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, announces the biennial "Eric Williams 'School Bags' Essay Competition."  It will be held from September 2009 through January 31, 2010. Winners will be announced on April 30, 2010.  Throughout his life, Dr. eric Williams, noted scholar/historian and the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, gave special emphasis to learning.  "To educate is to emancipate," he famously said, and on August 30, 1962, the eve of his country's Independence from Britain, he exhorted:

"You, the children, yours is the great responsibility to educate your parents, teach them to live together inharmony....To your tender and loving hands, the future of the Nation is entrusted.  In your innocent hearts, the pride of the Nation is enshrined.  On your scholastic development, the salvation of the Nation is dependent....you carry the future of Trinidad and Tobago in your school bags."

Since 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, Caribbean students are being asked to assess its successes and failures and to comment on their relevance to today.  This year, the EWMC is partnering with UNESCO offices in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada and the British Virgin Islands in encouraging eligible schools in those countries to participate.  The contest is being offered to all final year Sixth Form students (or equivalent) in the former and current British-colonized Caribbean countries: Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos.