The competition has been established in order to create an international platform to debate issues relating to education and development and create an opportunity to publish the work of students and of people who want to be heard. Whether you're from Lebanon, Lesotho or Lithuania, we would like to hear what YOU have to say about ‘education'.
Who can enter? Absolutely anyone! It doesn’t matter whether English is your first, second, third or fourth language: your article will be judged first and foremost on the quality of your argument and the originality of your ideas.
There are three prizes this year:
- NUHA Young Writers Blogging Prize, for those born between 1998 and 2002: £50
- NUHA Youth Blogging Prize, for those born between 1994 and 1997: £100
- NUHA Adult Blogging Prize, for those born before 1994: £150
Write an article of between 500 and 1,500 words in response to one of the statements below:
Young writers
- The Babel Fish is a fictitious animal which can serve as a universal translator. "If you stick one in your ear, you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language". (From the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). How would the world change if this invention became reality?
- How can technology help to make education more accessible to all?
- We often hear that mistakes are opportunities to learn. Drawing on your own experience and your observations of the world around you, do you agree with this statement?
- "Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil" - C.S. Lewis. Discuss.
- If everyone were able to speak English, what would happen to all the other languages?
- "Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits" - Albert Einstein. Drawing inspiration from this quote, discuss the role of imagination in education.
- In the future, people will cease to own books. Discuss.
- "It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time - for we are bound by that - but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time." - T.S. Eliot. Discuss.
- "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." - Nelson Mandela. Discuss.
Once your article is ready, complete the form below and send both the article and the form to our Editor at editor@nuhafoundation.org by 28 October 2012 latest!
The article should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document bearing the name of the author, the blogging prize category and the choice of topic, for example: JohnSmith_Youth_3 for a Youth participant named John Smith writing about topic 3 of the Youth Category.
The Editor will read every essay she receives, which may then be published on the NUHA blog until 11 November. If more than 20 articles are published in one of the age categories, a runner-up prize will be awarded.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Tell your family and friends to vote! for your article by commenting on it, liking it on Facebook and tweeting about it. The voting closes on 24 November.
On 27 November, the Editor will announce the 6 articles that have been shortlisted in each category: these will be the articles that received the most votes, the articles that generated the most debate, and the articles that did not get much public attention but that deserve to be shortlisted for their intrinsic quality.
The Editor will also introduce the panel of judges for this year's competition. They will focus on the quality of the argument and the originality of the ideas.
On 17 December 2012, we will announce the prize winners (and the runner-ups)!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Please e-mail the Editor if you have any questions. Here are answers to questions we received last year:
An article can be written by two or more people. We then need one form for each of the authors.
If you want to write more than 1,500 words, you can divide your essay into articles of 500-1,500 words each.
REFERRING NGOS: PUBLICITY!
This year, we will also be using the blogging prizes to support NGOs from around the world, by acknowledging those that refer 5 or more authors for the writing competition, and by featuring those that refer 20 or more authors.
NGOs that want to make the most of this opportunity should ensure that the authors indicate the NGO's name on their article submission form, under the question: "How did you hear about the NUHA Blogging Prizes".
Please note that we will not publicise those NGOs where to do so could lead to a security risk for our field volunteers.
Download: submission form
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For queries/ submissions: editor@nuhafoundation.org
Website: http://www.nuhafoundation.org
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