Jamie Usher has been the principal of Belize High School since it was established over a decade ago. But tonight, she is no longer head of the private secondary school here in Belize City. In a message earlier this evening, Usher confirmed her departure from B.H.S. stating, “I am humbled to have been able to share my talents, gifts, and ideas for just under fourteen years. The service to the future of education in Belize has been my passion, and my energies will continue to serve the students of Belize, especially in leadership and robotics. I look forward to the next chapter. Always Team Belize, always a robotics enthusiast, and always a STEAM educator.”
Category: Education
Senate Debates Change to Mandatory School Age
The Government of Belize is changing the mandatory school age from fourteen to sixteen-years old. An amendment to the Education Rules was passed in the House of Representatives and debated in the Senate this morning. The primary objective of the change is to decrease the nation’s school dropout rate and increase enrollment in primary and high school. The amendment was supported by the Senate, but some senators had reservations about its implementation.
Jamal Swaso, U.D.P. Senator
“These amendments from our side, we welcome it because as a developing nation these changes are needed if you want to build a great foundation for our nation. We need to increase the captured audience that we can use through the education system to get them into school. I would like the government to consider several things, before we move forward with this great effort. Has the government taken into consideration the additional resources needed to be effective and capture these students we now have? We have to take into consideration we do not have enough schools, dilapidated schools, we do not have sufficient teachers, we need more psychosocial support for these students who will be in these classrooms.”
Elena Smith, NTUCB Senator
“We believe that moving the age from fourteen to sixteen is good for the country because we are looking at ensuring that more of our students and population has a certain level of education and can function in our society. And that is a good thing. However, these things do come with its setbacks. As a teacher of thirty-eight years I understand we can see where students who remain in our primary school system for longer than they should so if we had the primary school age will be fourteen, we do have a few students who are older than fourteen in the primary school students. These are students who are not particularly academically inclined.”
Bevinton Cal, P.U.P. Senator
“I listened to Senator Swaso earlier and his comments. He made some valid comments but it also makes me wonder as a young person where he is at, because him and I are from the south and just at his backyard, if he would do his research before coming here, on the last budget we approved moneys for the education uplifment program or what we refer to as free education. In his backyard at the Delille Academy, that program has enrolled. In his backyard again, George Town Technical High, that free education is also rolling. At the ITVET, just in November the Prime Minister announced that they will be investing one point three million dollars at the ITVET in Stann Creek.”
Minister Fonseca Assures IT-VET Teachers of Timely Payments
Last week, instructors at the Belize City IT-VET called the media to say that their salaries were not being paid by the Ministry of Education since September. The instructors said that it was the institution itself that was meeting their salaries each month. Some of them had issues with that fact, as well as the contracts they have with the ministry. But since then, the Ministry’s C.E.O. has told News Five that the matter has been resolved and today, the Minister of Education, Francis Fonseca, assured the instructors that their salary issues are a thing of the past.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
“In the case of the ITVET here in Belize City, again, that’s a long-standing challenge. But we were able to resolve that issue on Friday last week Friday, Finally, we’re up to date with the payments. I talked about this in the National Assembly on Friday. It is not that the teachers were not being paid; they were getting monies through the IT-VET in Belize City. But they had not – we had not gotten the money from the Ministry of Finance as yet to pay them. So the IT-VET in Belize City through the support of the ministry was giving them money that now has to be reimbursed. But they were getting paid, and now what we have done is put them on the smart stream system, so that this problem does not reoccur. And again we’ve been looking at the contract situation. The whole challenge with this with IT-VET is the contracts which are annual contracts – one-year contracts. So we’re looking at that to try to expand and extend those contracts. But the main thing is that it has been resolved.”
Minister Fonseca: No Student Should Be Sent Home for Not Paying School Fees
Another IT-VET issue that surfaced last week was that thirty students attending the Orange Walk ITVET were reportedly sent home for owing several months of school fees. But the Minister of Education has said that no student should be kept from the classroom because of outstanding fees. Today, he reiterated that position and said that a payment plan can be put in place to solve the issue.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
“In the case of the Orange Walk ITVET, discussions and with the manager of the Orange Walk IT-Vet and the briefing that I got, he said that the students were not sent home. They were asked to bring their parents to school to discuss a payment plan for the remaining outstanding fees that they owed. That was done and my understanding is that issue has been resolved. All the students have been back in school since last week, sometime Wednesday, Thursday and they have worked out a payment plan with the parents for the remaining outstanding fees. We made it very clear to them that students should not be out of the classroom because they have not paid their fees. And there has to be something worked out.”
Minister Fonseca: Curriculum Reform Designed to Ease Work
For over a year, the Ministry of Education has been discussing with educators the matter of curriculum reform. Some teachers have raised concerns of their own on the topic, such as the timeliness in delivery of the revised kits and how that could affect students. Today, Minister Fonseca said he hasn’t heard of those concerns and pointed out that the whole idea behind curriculum reform is to make the work easier, but more effective.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
“I really have not heard that complaint at the Ministry of Education. I know there are always challenges with any new – the implementation of any new, initiative, and the curriculum reform is a big issue, a big initiative. So there are some challenges as we go along, but for the most part, I think teachers have embraced it and they recognize that the ministry is working very closely along with them to make it even easier for them. The whole idea is to make their class preparation even easier and I think that goal is being achieved. Not to say we don’t have a few challenges, but I think generally it has been well received. And wherever there are difficulties, we sit and work with the managements and the schools to address them.”
Ministry of Education Explains OW ITVET Situation
Earlier this week, thirty students attending the Orange Walk ITVET were reportedly sent home after several months of being unable to pay their school fees. It is a decision that is frowned upon by the Ministry of Education and today, C.E.O. Dian Maheia explained that the students were not suspended from school, but were in fact asked to return with their parents to discuss a payment plan.
Dian Maheia, C.E.O., Ministry of Education
“My understanding was that the ITVET Orange Walk had concerns because they had students with outstanding fees, parents who had not kept up with the payment arrangements and so they chose to ask the students to go to get the parents to come and confirm how they are going to handle their payment arrangements.”
Marion Ali
“So those students are for nonpayment of school fees.”
Dian Maheia
“My understanding is that they are not out of school, that they were asked just to get the parents so that they could have a conversation regarding outstanding school fees.”
Marion Ali
“For the students whose families absolutely can‘t afford it, will they be asked to stay at home until they can?”
Dian Maheia
“No…They won‘t…”