February 11, 2014

Dear Editor,

The Bible states that a sin is a sin. The law states that a thief is a thief. There is no greater sin than another sin; there is no greater thief than another thief. I am a liar and you are a murderer, yet both of us are sinners because we have committed sins. I might have stolen a cheese and you might have stolen one million dollars: we are both thieves. If the PUP stole one million dollars and the UDP stole five hundred, aren’t both of them thieves? It doesn’t matter how much the UDP has stolen compared to the PUP. What matters is that all the hope and trust that we had in them have diminished and the people yet again realize the simple truth; the majority of our politicians seem to be of self-interested and corruptible minds.

Of late, whenever I sit and observe the state of things in my country I am left with the question: where are the educated masses in Belize? Where are the Antonio Soberanis, the George Price, the Philip Goldson, the Evan X Hyde? Where is Belize’s Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi? The motto on the Ministry of Education website is “Education for Self, Education for Strength, Education for Life”. Shouldn’t there have been something there about education for country or for community? Or am I to believe that such is understood in the motto? What are the people with the Master’s degrees and the Doctors of Philosophy doing to empower the masses of this country? They are the ones who should be simplifying the issues and bringing awareness to the masses.

I want the educated masses and those “well off” to take a moment to really observe the state and condition of our marginalized citizens, especially those living on the Southside of Belize City. They say that education is the key to success, but in Belize it seems the key to success is knowing a Minister. We used to value education in this country, but now we value our area representative. That is why the state of education is in a horrible condition but no one seems to care or seems to be interested. Thousands of youths will graduate from primary school this year not knowing how to properly read or write. Thousands too will graduate from high school barely being able to write a decent sentence or read an article from the newspaper and understand what they have read. The first people we would like to blame this on are the teachers. We forget that education does not only comprise of teachers, but of administrators, parents, the community and the Ministry. We are also unaware of the current culture in our education system whereby students are socially promoted by the principals, since it’s no longer quality that matters, but quantity. The more students you retain, the more money the government will give you.

The quality of education that students received from Excelsior High School in the 80s and early 90s surpasses the quality of education being given in some “elite” schools today. In fact, graduates from primary schools in the 80s and early 90s are well off academically compared to some graduating from junior colleges today.

It wounds me to know that our Prime Minister, Minister of Education, the Governor General and many others are products of the Southside of Belize. They went to these same Southside primary schools and high schools and were able to achieve and succeed because of the foundation they acquired from those schools. Yet, those same schools that worked for them are failing the youths today.

I prolong on education because if the masses are not truly educated, they could never be a true democracy. Democracy works along with education. If the majority is illiterate how could they truly choose democratic leaders? Low levels of educated people create dictatorships in countries. And it seems that is where we are heading in Belize.

Faith Hope