900+ Guatemalan Students Cross Border Daily for Belizean Education

More than 900 Guatemalan students cross the border every day to attend primary and high schools in the Cayo District. It’s nothing new. In fact, this has been occurring for decades. On Wednesday, Education Minister Francis Fonseca told reporters, “There has always been a steady flow of Guatemalan students who come into our education system mainly to learn English. And we have always, as a matter of policy for the government of Belize, regardless of which administration, welcomed them, and we’ve treated them with dignity and respect.”

Since being regularised in 2017, the number of Guatemalan students attending schools in Belize has increased by hundreds.

A recent bottleneck at the Belize-Guatemala border caused delays for the students. It raised concerns about the efficiency at the border. Fonseca said, “Anytime these issues arise, yes, we try to address them; we engage with the immigration authorities to try to work out whatever bottlenecks exist. So, yes, we are engaged on that issue, and whatever issues have arisen, we are trying to address them.”

And since the issue was reported, a lot of Belizeans are asking if these students benefit from free education paid by Belizean taxpayers. When asked, Fonseca said, “Belize has a long-standing policy of engaging with our neighbours. We have been a welcoming society. As you all know, we welcome citizens from all over Central America to our country. In terms of the Guatemalans, they have primary schools, and, as you know, they have very, very minimal fees. For the most part, primary education in Belize is free. So that policy remains in place. These are young students, young people who want to learn English and participate in the education system in Belize. And we don’t want to deny any young person an opportunity to get an education.”