Today final exams began at Holy Redeemer Primary School. But for the thirteenth consecutive school day, the standoff between the school and Ash-Lynne Young's mother has kept the standard five student out of class and today it went further as it kept Ash-Lynne From sitting her exams.
7NEWS confirmed that this morning Minister of Education Francis Fonseca met with Catholic Bishop Dorick Wright and Catholic Schools' General Manager Clemente Wade. At news time, no one from the Ministry of Education would return our calls for comment on the outcome of that meeting.
But for what it is worth they might be feeling the pressure because in a statement issued today, Belize's special envoy for children Ambassador Her Excellency Dolores Balderamos-Garcia placed the responsibility of ensuring this impasse is cleared up squarely on the shoulders of the Ministry of Education.
H.E. Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Special Envoy for Children
"I can only state it once again in the strongest terms: this child needs to be in school and as I have said in my statement just put out this morning, we are hoping and praying that the parties get together and resolve this very very quickly and I am calling especially on the Ministry of Education to play a proactive role because the differences of opinion, and I don't know all the facts in the case so I cannot take the side of either parties except to take the side of the child because the child needs to be in school and I am hoping that they can resolve this today if possible."
You are calling on the Ministry of Education to ensure the impasse is cleared up, do you think they are doing all they can?
H.E. Dolores Balderamos-Garcia,
"I am sure that they are and I can't speak for what's happening today but I could imagine that there was a little delay because of the education summit last week but I have every confidence that Minister Francis Fonseca will get on to it right away."
So you think if they (the Ministry of Education) put their all into it, this little girl could be back in school?
H.E. Dolores Balderamos-Garcia,
"I think so and you know that leads me to make a very strong call on all the partners in the church/state partnership to work together. I believe that it is not for either parties to say this is what I am going to do and I don't care about anybody else says; I think that government and the church partners have to sit down and discuss issues because we have laws. We are a nation of laws and we have respect for the moral authority of the church but we have our constitution, we have our various laws, and we also are signatories to both the convention on the rights of the child and the convention to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women."
Ash-Lynne's mother Sharon Flowers told us that the Ministry of Education scheduled a meeting for tomorrow morning between herself and officials from Holy Redeemer Primary School. We'll have details on that tomorrow, but you can still weigh in on the issue by voting in our online poll.