BELIZE CITY, Mon. July 1, 2019– When the new school year opens in September, the 50 students attending Bethel Assembly Primary School, located on Freetown Road, will be attending new schools, because their school will be permanently closed.

Amandala attempted to reach the Chief Education Officer, Dr. Carol Babb, to get an official response as to why the Ministry of Education has decided to close the doors of Bethel Assembly Primary School, but up to press time, Dr. Babb had not responded to our text message.

We were able to speak to the temporary principal of Bethel Assembly, Raquel Moreno, who told us that on April 30, the Ministry of Education came in, and that there was a meeting between the school’s management and the ministry officials, the Chief Education Officer and an Education officer.

Moreno told us that it was the Ministry of Education’s decision to close the school. He said the decision to close the school was made because of the low student enrollment.

For the school year that has just ended, Bethel Assembly Primary School had a total of 50 students.

When the school had its graduation last week, ten students graduated from the school.

Moreno, 60, explained that four teachers were teaching at the school and so far, two of them have been placed at other schools.

Moreno, who is from the Orange Walk District, is a retired teacher and took the job as principal of the school at the beginning of the school year.

Moreno told us that when she took the job as temporary principal, she learned that the school was going to be closed down by the Ministry of Education.

The closure of the school was announced during its last graduation ceremony.

Moreno also said that the school was run by the Ministry of Education, which pays her salary and the salaries of the four teachers.

We asked Moreno what will be done with the school building, but she told us that we would have to ask the school’s general manager, Dr. Wilma Wright. We were unable to reach Dr. Wright.