_{Photo: Acting BNTU president, Jorge Mejia}

by Kristen Ku

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Mar. 6, 2024

In response to some comments by government officials directed toward educators in Belize, on Tuesday, March 5, the Belize National Teacher’s Union (BNTU) held a press conference in Belmopan.

The comments that offended the BNTU were made on Thursday, November 29, by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Hon. Christopher Coye, during an interview at the World Bank public expenditure reviews.

“What we’re seeing is, notwithstanding the level of expenditures, the relative level of expenditures comparative to other countries in the region, we are, and the learning outcomes are certainly subpar. And that in part has to do with the low quality of education that is being given. The teachers play a role in that. And so, we have to look at how do we improve the quality of education being provided by improving the quality of teaching that is being given,” he said.

Another comment that touched a nerve of the BNTU was given by the Prime Minister, Hon. John Briceño, on March 1, where he expressed, “We’ve been seeing that, year after year, successive governments are pumping more and more money, investing more and more money in education, but what we’re getting in return is not justified, so we have to see what’s going wrong, and one of the issues is that we need to do more teacher training, that we need to work more with our teachers to ensure that we can give the proper training to our students.”

Led by acting BNTU president, Jorge Mejia, the press conference sought to address the disparity of teacher’s underperformance as mentioned by ministers versus the actual report that provided other reasons for such performances in education.

“I want to share with the public that in no way the report directly linked the teaching, poor teaching, as a major factor of the low performance in the education system. Despite the finger-pointing that the minister has stated in public, this is not the real scenario,” he said. “It’s unfair for the minister to say such a blatant statement, which shows disrespect to the profession.”

Mejia said the report shared different factors affecting the performance in education, such as assessments, student composition, instructional time, education policies, teaching methods, and curriculum alignment, among others.

“It’s not to be critical of teachers. It’s to say to them that we need to work together to ensure that teacher training is improved. All of us have a collective responsibility to ensure that, because the quality of our teachers is directly linked to the quality of education,” responded Minister of Education, Hon. Francis Fonseca.

Responding to the BNTU seeking an apology from the government, Fonseca shared the view that it was an “honest conversation” in which teachers are aware of the need for continuous teacher training.

Other topics discussed at the press conference were finances invested in education, which teachers say they have not been getting. The teachers say they have been given the additional burden of managing piloting projects with little to no financial aid or general maintenance.

“A lot of these project-based work just put an additional burden upon households, and in Belize, we’re already dealing with issues of poverty. So, you are already poor, you’re already allocating so much of your household finances towards education, and on top of that, I have to go and find money to do three, five projects a month. You understand? So, we definitely need, and especially with all of this money that I’m hearing from the Millennium Challenge Cooperation, I hope that that money will find its way into the classroom,” stated Bay Rivas, BNTU’s national secretary.