Belize’s Ministry of Education on Monday formally announced that classes would be extended by one week, from December 12 to 19, 2008, in order to recover some of the time lost due to the extensive floods that caused the temporary shut down of schools across the country in October.
According to the release, “a few communities continue to be adversely affected by flooding. This is likely to continue… Our children have lost valuable instructional time during the past two weeks.”
The Ministry had suspended classes for a number of schools in all six districts, particularly Cayo, Orange Walk, Belize and Stann Creek Districts. Most schools re-opened without fanfare on October 27, but a few continue to be shut down.
In making its decision, the Ministry said it consulted with “other partners in the education sector,” particularly the Belize National Teachers’ Union (BNTU).
According to Section 131 (4) of the Education Rules, all schools must meet a standard of 180 school days per year; if a school cannot meet this number, it must make special arrangements to do so unless “otherwise approved by the Chief Education Officer.”
Ministry spokesperson Arlette Gomez indicated by phone at press time that the Easter holidays and the summer holidays would not be affected by this move.
According to Gomez, schools will make up whatever missed days they accrued during the extension, meaning that many schools will in fact close before December 19 if they have less than a week of classes to make up.
As for schools that are physically unable to reopen, like one in Calla Creek, Cayo, the Ministry is pursuing its options as to how best to continue education for affected students.