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(You need to) get over your problem, Minister

Editorial(You need to) get over your problem, Minister

The Deputy Prime Minister, who is the Minister of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture, in his hour- and-a-half long presentation on the 2019-2020 budget to the House of Representatives, dedicated the first half hour of his time to countering the presentations of two former ministers of education from the Opposition in the House, Honorable Cordel Hyde and Honorable Said Musa. Those two representatives had spent considerable time pointing out what they saw as weaknesses in the 2019-2020 budget, and the Deputy Prime Minister felt they deserved some correction.

Representative Hyde said, among other things, that he believes the government auditor should have been called on to audit the extensive activities of the Belize Infrastructure Limited (BIL), and that the BIL had completely botched the construction of Lake I Boulevard. Representative Hyde had questions about a new project for which the government had acquired 50 acres of land in the Lake Independence area.

Responding to Representative Hyde, the Minister of Education said that BIL is a quasi-government body, and so it was right and proper that its business was audited by a private company. The Education Minister said that the government will invite private businesses to invest in the project on the 50-acre block in Lake Independence, which will include a modern bus terminal and a new complex for government offices.

Representative Musa said, among other things, that the government is depending too much on borrowing, that there is too much corruption in the Barrow government, and he pointed out instances where the Ministry of Education had not spent funds allocated in the last budget for vital projects.

The Minister of Education responded that Representative Musa, who was the Prime Minister between 1998 and 2008, was on shaky ground when he called out the Barrow government for excessive borrowing and corruption, because when he, Musa, was Prime Minister, his government had been accused of far worse. The Minister of Education explained that his ministry had not used all the funds allocated to it because they had introduced some measures that greatly increased the efficiency of the department.

The Minister of Education, however, had a lot of praise for another former minister of education on the PUP side, Honorable Francis Fonseca. In his presentation to the House of Representatives, Representative Fonseca, among other things, called for more investment in childhood education, teacher training, and vocational training. Representative Fonseca also said that we need to get better results from our investment in education.

The Minister of Education praised Honorable Fonseca for pushing early education in our country. He said that his ministry had built on what they found when they came into government, and they are putting special emphasis on early childhood education in rural areas.

He praised Honorable Fonseca for the investments made in vocational training while Fonseca was minister of education, but he said that they weren’t satisfied with the location of some of the vocational schools. He singled out the vocational programs in Orange Walk and San Ignacio for special praise.

He said that his government recognized the importance of expanded teacher training, and he listed their achievements in this area since the UDP came into office in 2008. He said that teachers got much support from government and that when they attained greater credentials, they received increased financial remuneration, consistent with their level of education.

The Minister of Education called on parents to take more interest in their children. He spoke on the importance of students having the best teachers in their early years, because this results in their developing a sound foundation. He spoke of the need for parents to teach their children proper hygiene, and good values.

He said the education ministry is seeking to digitize school books, and there is a move toward the “digital classroom”, an initiative which is supported by the OAS. These measures, he explained, will result in more effective teaching and the ministry will realize savings in costs.

In his presentation to the House of Representatives, Representative Fonseca also spoke about the importance of African and Mayan Studies in the curriculum in our schools. Representative Fonseca said that these studies had already been introduced when there was a change in government.

The Minister of Education, Honorable Patrick Faber, praised Honorable Fonseca for a number of his initiatives, and although he continued for over an hour after his first half hour, in which he berated Representatives Hyde and Musa, he made no mention of this particular initiative that Representative Fonseca had spoken about.

The fact is that since the PUP left office, the teaching of African and Mayan Studies has not been increased in our schools. Since 2008, Honorable Patrick Faber has been the minister of education. He should explain why.

It has to be ignorance if you don’t understand the critical importance for children and youth of African and Mayan heritage to know, from early in their lives, that the world did not begin in 1492. It has to be ignorance if you don’t understand the critical importance for children and youth of African and Mayan heritage to know, from early in their lives, that slavery did not really end in 1833.

In 1492, Columbus landed in our part of the world, and his coming began the worst genocide the world has ever seen, and the worst form of slavery the world has ever seen. In this period of slavery and subjugation, the Europeans destroyed the history of the peoples they conquered. The education system the Europeans designed is infested with obvious and subliminal messages to keep the chains on the minds of the children of Africa and the Americas.

In the first half of the 1800s, slavery gave way to colonialism, a system in which the former slave master maintained political control and exploited us economically. Later, colonialism gave way to neo-colonialism, a system in which the children of former slaves and subjugated peoples, for example our education minister, preside over a system that maintains the status quo of European domination.

It is possible that the Minister of Education and the UDP are happy to perpetuate ignorance, happy to keep the minds of our children and youth fettered by European superiority embedded in the education system, because of whence the need for African and Mayan studies in our schools originated. It was a manifesto promise of the United Black Association for Development (UBAD) when that party unsuccessfully contested the general elections in 1974.

UBAD was defeated in 1974, and the party was dissolved shortly after, but the seed of having the minds of our children and youth freed of the destructive European programming, never died. In the pages of the Amandala it lived, and lives, and under a PUP government, under their Minister of Education, Honorable Francis Fonseca, it bore its first fruit.

It is possible that it is fear of religion that is behind the present education minister’s devotion to preserving ignorance. There may be people at the apex of the religion pyramid who feel that some of their flock will develop a new consciousness about Jesus the Christ, if they are exposed to African and Mayan history.

Followers of Jesus the Christ know he said that the truth shall make us free. Some of his followers are hell bent on crushing truth into the dirt.

The Jesuits at St. John’s College have no fear of the truth. The Jesuits grasp that African and Mayan history is about liberating the minds of the children and youth of African and Mayan heritage. The television which produces Hollywood creations makes this education even more critical.

Hopefully, it is not resentment of the original source of the idea for the teaching of African and Mayan history, and hopefully it is not fear of some Christian religions; hopefully it is ignorance, that has caused the Minister of Education not to have grasped, after ten years at the head of that ministry, that the children and youth of African and Mayan heritage need to learn the truth about their ancestors, very early in their lives.

It was said by someone that the mind of the one who knows not and knows that he knows not, can be freed from ignorance. Everything begins with love and respect and knowledge of self, and one’s ancestors.

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