A record num­ber of schools have reg­is­tered to par­tic­i­pate in the 2020 edi­tion of the Na­tion­al Schools Panora­ma.

At the launch of the com­pe­ti­tions at the VIP Room of the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah yes­ter­day, it was an­nounced that 67 school steel­bands from 22 sec­ondary and 45 pri­ma­ry schools will be tak­ing part—the high­est num­ber in the 45-year his­to­ry of the event.

There will be eight days of pre­lim­i­nary judg­ing dur­ing which bands will vie for a spot in the fi­nals sched­uled for Jan­u­ary 26 at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

At the launch, at­tend­ed by Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cials, stake­hold­ers and par­tic­i­pants, it was not­ed that the re­newed com­mit­ment of PanTrin­ba­go, the Pan in Schools Co­or­di­nat­ing Coun­cil and the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly are all con­tribut­ing to the suc­cess of the event. For the first time this year, Ear­ly Child­hood Care and Ed­u­ca­tion Cen­tres (EC­CE) will ben­e­fit from the teach­ing and learn­ing of the steel pan through the Mu­sic Ex­pan­sion Project un­der the Mul­ti-Cul­tur­al Mu­sic Pro­gramme Unit (MM­PU).

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia re­it­er­at­ed his com­mit­ment to keep the steel pan alive and in­crease its use as a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of the de­liv­ery of ed­u­ca­tion.

“The ded­i­ca­tion, the dri­ve, the tal­ent and the spir­it of ca­ma­raderie that is ex­hib­it­ed all through the lead-up and on the day of fi­nals on the Sa­van­nah stage con­tin­u­ous­ly amazes me,” he said.

He added: “This ex­pe­ri­ence is one that these stu­dents will take in­to adult­hood and I wish to sin­cere­ly thank and con­grat­u­late each in­struc­tor, con­duc­tor, arranger and in­di­vid­ual who con­tributes to these young peo­ple’s suc­cess. Your in­vest­ment in these youths is an in­vest­ment in the de­vel­op­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go and for that, I am tru­ly grate­ful.”