BELIZE CITY, Fri, June 10, 2022

Today, Minister of Education, Hon. Francis Fonseca announced that a loss-mitigation summer school program would be launched across the country to address the learning setbacks suffered by students as a result of the two-year lapse in classroom (in-person) learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With a majority of students back in classrooms in the latter part of this school year, the ministry has identified learning gaps using the Belize Diagnostic Assessment Test (B-DAT), and is now taking steps to address them. According to Minister Fonseca, retired and highly skilled and experienced teachers will be utilized on the front lines during the summer program and will work in specific problem areas to get students to reach the necessary educational level prior to the next school year.

In response to a reporter’s suggestion that schools have been directed to “push up” students to the next academic level even if they had not acquired the required level of skill/understanding to be promoted to a higher class, he said this was “absolutely not” the case, and in fact, that many students would be repeating—doing an additional year in both primary and high schools. He also commented that indiscriminate promotion of students to a higher class would be misguided and foolish and maintained that working on addressing the learning gaps identified is what is important.

The Education Ministry is still not certain whether or not schools will be opened early for the new school year. Minister Fonseca says that decision would be made jointly by stakeholders across the educational spectrum. Some discussions have been had on the matter, but no decision has been handed down as yet.

Addressing the learning loss will be a key feature in post-pandemic recovery. It is estimated that millions of students have not returned to school, and mitigation efforts to address the learning loss are being planned by countries across the world, with 70 percent of reopened schools intending to introduce remedial programs, a report from UNICEF states.

In Belize, the Education Ministry has recently rolled out the Belize Diagnostic Assessment Test (B-DAT) to pinpoint the most affected subject areas, gauge the current learning gaps, and find out where our students across the country are facing difficulties. According to Minister Fonseca, the results of the test indicated that students across the nation have fallen behind in math, science, and English.