Bringing SDGs to all primary schools in Montenegro

How to get children from all parts of Montenegro to think and to express their views on 17 different Sustainable Development Goals? Sounds like a hard thing to do. But not impossible. The UN team in Montenegro gladly accepted invitation of the national postal operator Montenegro Post and the Ministry of Education to join the annual competition for the best letter in the form of essay, for all schoolchildren aged 9-15 in Montenegro.

The Universal Postal Union, which coordinates international competition every year, set this year’s essay topic "Imagine you are an advisor to the new UN Secretary-General which world issue would you help him tackle first and how would you advise him to solve it?".

To help children understand quite complex theme, we thought that SDGs architecture could inspire them to write about ‘world issues’ from their own eyes.

Vlatko Otasevic, UN team in Montenegro

For this purpose, the SDGs narrative was transferred into easy-to-understand language and child-friendly visuals, so the children could get the point. The Post of Montenegro made sure that all those materials were timely distributed to all the primary schools in Montenegro, while the Ministry of Education, through their infrastructure, ensured that all school provide teachers-mentors who will help interested children to participate in the competition. All mentors were provided with supporting child-friendly materials on SDGs.

We are delighted to partner with United Nations team in this year’s competition for the best letter-essay. The topic seems to be more than relevant, and we look forward to learn how children of Montenegro think and express their views on global challenges. I am sure we’ll see some inspiring pieces.

Aleksandra Perović, Post Office of Montenegro

The competition lasts from 1-31 March 2017. In the upcoming months, three-member panel of literary experts from the Ministry of Education will select the best four letters-essays, whose authors will be awarded on the ceremony on International Post Day 9 October.

Montenegro Post will provide prizes for the best four authors – laptop, tablet, smartphone and bicycle as the special prize, while the UN team in Montenegro will award SDGs branded sweatshirt for all the winners. Later on, the winning letter essay will be included in the global competition of all national winning letters.