Kailey Panchoo, ten, of San Fernando TML Primary School, beat 542 other students to win the National Diabetes Primary School Quiz on May 27.
She was one of 15 standard three students participating at the finals of the Diabetes Association of Trinidad and Tobago’s second annual national quiz at the Learning Resource Centre Auditorium, UWI St Augustine campus.
[caption id="attachment_1020589" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Winner of the National Diabetes Primary School Quiz Kailey Panchoo, ten, of San Fernando TML Primary School. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]
The second-place winner was Dylan Harripaul of Arima Presbyterian Primary School, and Catriona Bethelmy of San Fernando TML took third place. Finalists also included a home schooled student, Arya Ralph, and Nikayah Matson from Tobago.
Kailey said she had been preparing for the quiz since March, so when she won she was both shocked and overjoyed. She said she was scared during the finals because everyone was watching her, but the prizes she won – a laptop, a printer, a JTA vouchers – made up for the nerves.
[caption id="attachment_1020592" align="alignnone" width="619"] The coveted National Diabetes Primary School Quiz trophy. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]
She said her mother Nadine Geoffroy, and Catriona’s mother Dr Vanessa Harry, helped get the three San Fernando TML students ready for the quiz by reviewing the three documents and 14 videos they had to learn with them.
“I think I might want to enter another competition because it was a very good experience. I like how it was packed with information that you could use for other stuff.”
Asked what she would do with all the knowledge she now had about diabetes she said, “I probably would inform my schoolmates about it and tell them about diabetes. My family and I already started exercising more, just doing more physical activity.”
Panchoo said she wanted to be an astronaut and hoped to one day study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and then Queen’s University in Canada. She is ready to do the work to make that happen.
[caption id="attachment_1020591" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The top three standard three students at the Diabetes Association of TT’s second annual National Diabetes Primary School Quiz finals – (L-R) Catriona Bethelmy of San Fernando TML, Kalley Panchoo of San Fernando TML and Dylan Harripaul of Arima Presbyterian – at the Learning Resource Centre auditorium, UWI St Augustine, on May 27. Photos by Janelle De Souza. - Janelle De Souza[/caption]
At the diabetes quiz finals, president of the Diabetes Association Andrew Dhanoo said the association was trying to empower primary school children to learn about their health and be advocates for diabetes.
He said recent statistics from the World Health Organization put TT in the top ten countries for overweight children under the age of five. Also, the 2017 Global School-based Student Health Survey said half the country’s adolescent population were either overweight or obese.
“That 2017 survey was
