After months of promotion and weeks of anticipation, the education Summit got started this morning at the Belize Biltmore Plaza.
Over 400 participants from all sectors of society and all regions of the country gathered this morning for the opening of the working sessions. It's a great rush of attention but what is the summit really about? Like the summit goers, Keith Swift has been looking for answers and his quest commenced last night at the official opening.
Keith Swift Reporting,
At the Bliss last night, the spotlight was on Prime Minister Hon. Said Musa as he opened the historic education summit. PM Musa mapped the progress education has made, and concluded that the church/state partnership has served us well.
Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
“Education in Belize under the tried and tested church state partnership has successfully provided a sound education for most Belizeans.”
So why the summit? Well the in the Prime Minister’s own words, eventhough the education system in Belize isn’t broken, it needs a tune-up and make that, a badly needed tune-up.
Hon. Said Musa,
“What comes to mind is the old adage: if it works don’t fix it. Having said that, we recognize that the Belize today almost a quarter century after attaining its independence is a different Belize. We are living in a complex and fast changing world.
“The fundamental question we ask is what kind of education will best prepare our young people for this complex and fast changing world. we need Belizeans who regardless of their level of education attained possess adaptive inquisitive minds, have appetites for life long learning and who have had their talents harnessed in a system which plays to their strengths. We should I believe become more focused on the core subjects for a strong foundation: English laguage math, science, and social studies. We must master the English language which provides as a unifying and global capacity for unification and globlization.
But when one of Belize’s foremost intellectuals and the Prime Minister’s closest friend Assad Shoman took the to the mic this morning he had a different take. For Shoman the education system has failed students, teachers, and Belize. For him it doesn’t need a tune-up, it needs an overhaul.
Assad Shoman,
“Here we are at a time when a high school is not enough to ensure you a decent job and still a large percentage of our young people do not even finish primary school; that is now past shocking - it is catastrophic.”
“In my view the objective can only be obtainable with a profound revolution in our educational system. In the first place, education must be secular and coordinated by the state with full participation from the community in all its facets. It must produce people with a high level of general and integral culture and a broad knowledge of the world we live in including its fundamental political and social facets. It must foster high moral values such as respect for humanity and its diversity; solidarity; love for justice; a sense of responsibility to ourselves, our fellow human beings and to nature; it must prepare our young people in a practical way to take control of their lives and to participate actively in a changing economy.”
And while he wouldn’t call it catastrophic, Education Minister Hon. Francis Fonseca says our education system is at a crossroads and that is why over the course of the three day summit, educators, religious leaders, students, and everyday Belizeans will gather in what he likens to a town hall meeting to discuss all things education.
Hon. Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
“I am hopeful that coming out of this summit we can have a great of sense of unity, a greater sense of purpose. The whole objective really of the education summit was to really bring together all the stakeholders and to engage us in a frank, open, and meaningful dialogue on the issues and challenges we face in education.”
The summit continues until Thursday with keynote addresses by Santos Mahung and Zee Edgell.