Belize Elementary School prides itself in many achievements. In last year?s P.S.E., three of our students, Christopher Chang, Jordan Medina and Ashley Moreno, placed in the top twenty-five scores. In fact, Christopher Chang had the fifth highest score in the country and had the highest score in Science. We also had 100% passes. In 2003, Belize Elementary School was the top school in the country in the P.S.E. exam again with 100% passes. We have been consistent in this yearly, always with 100% passes in the PSE and in the top three schools in the country. This year, we not only had the two top scores by Lillian Shen and Virginia Hsu, respectively, but also had 12 of the top 25 scores and the highest score in Math. So, B.E.S. is not getting there as Ms. Williams has said, it has been there all along. Besides this, the school prides itself in winning, for the past 5 years, the annual Conde Naste traveler international essay competition and presented Belize abroad. We have also won the Florida Cruise Competition Essay Contest, the Florida Cruise Competition Poster contest, the International Peace Poster Contest, etc. etc. etc. We are no strangers to the Festival of Arts. We have participated every single year. In fact, in 2001 we won as the school with the most Golden entries. Ms. Dian Garcia, one of our team, has won awards in the areas of dance and drama. We have won in the Story Telling Competition and our students have received awards for most promising dancers, most promising dramatist, most outstanding artist, best all-rounder. We also won as the school with the best Creative Writing entries in 2003. We at Belize Elementary encourage our children to participate in every competition and every contest. We teach them that winning is not everything, but always trying and doing your best is what counts. Learning goes beyond the classroom and beyond academics. Any good journalist should do a thorough research before printing an article in a national newspaper, and it would appear that Ms. Williams needed to do some research. The media should act responsibly and professionally to make sure that facts are reported! We need to clarify one important point. The two children who topped the exams are Belizeans and have been all their lives. In a country as multicultural as Belize, we need to put aside the issue of race and remember that we are all Belizeans. It has been alleged that ?two Chinese students? topped the country and ?the Asians are competing alongside native Belizean children.? Please be reminded that we teach by example, and we need to set the pace of a good example by educating our children on proper attitudes. Thank you. Respectfully, (Signed) D.E. Nisbet Principal
