BELIZE CITY, Mon. June 8, 2020– Normally, the months of May and June mark the season for graduations at all educational levels in the country. In Belize, however, as in much of the rest of the world, traditions such as these have been canceled and the Minister of Education had announced in May that there would be no ceremonies, since these would violate the current social distancing regulation implemented by health authorities.
This came as a disappointment for hundreds of families across the country, especially for secondary school students expecting to matriculate to the tertiary level this year. Several institutions, however, have worked along with parents and faculty members to think of new, creative ways to give the students some semblance of a ceremony as they celebrate such a pivotal milestone.
The outcome was a series of virtual graduation ceremonies held by schools across the country. These virtual ceremonies consisted of students receiving their diplomas wearing caps and gowns and broadcasting this via social media and other media outlets in the presence of two family members and faculty of their schools. St. Catherine Academy was one such school which carried out their virtual ceremony on Saturday, June 7.
In an interview with Channel 5 Live the Principal of St. Catherine Academy, Salome Tillett, stated:
“We are doing something special for our girls. They have worked hard for four years. ‘The disruption caused by COVID-19 is not their fault, so let’s do something special for them’ was the whole sentiment of our staff and parents, and so together we’ve come up with some ideas…our plan is to do this virtual kinda online and parts in person graduation that will involve a focus on every student. We will show her in her graduation regalia, say her name and she says a quote she lives by.”
According to the principal, certain parts of the graduation ceremony, such as the valedictory speech, the guest speaker address and other parts were pre-recorded while the blessing, reflection and calling of names was done live. Other schools such as Edward P. Yorke, Ladyville Technical High and others are similarly allowing students to bring along two family members and take photos in their gowns with their diplomas on stage or in front of a display.
During a press conference on Monday, June 8, Hon. Patrick Faber, along with the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Education, Deborah Domingo, as well as Chief Education Officer, Dr. Carol Babb, announced that the Ministry will be hosting a national virtual graduation for all 2020 graduates for the first time in Belize’s history.
Dr. Babb expounded on the event, which will be held on Sunday, June 21:
“This year the Ministry of Education realizes that graduations will not be able to be celebrated the way they normally do…one of my deputy chiefs said to me ‘you know what we should have a national virtual graduation ceremony to honor our 2020 graduates’; and almost at the same time, the Minister was on public television saying that he would do it, so we truly want to celebrate our 2020 graduates. The event is being held under the theme “The climb” and we are hoping that our graduates will realize that high school is only the third rung on the education ladder and we are hoping that they will climb much more,” she said.
The event will be broadcasted on 7News, Love FM, Krem TV and Wave TV as a pro-bono service for all 2020 graduates and will feature a number of addresses from national leaders such as the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Minister of Education. Top performers from each school will be highlighted and the broadcast is scheduled to take place at 2:00 p.m.
Feature photo: St. Catherine Academy’s virtual graduation