An internal memo from the Ministry of Education issued yesterday informed the Belize Teaching Service Commission that study leave would be suspended for all teachers. The memo notes that with the ongoing pandemic, the Ministry is forced to re-examine its financial prospects and try to minimize expenditure while relocating funds. Long story short, the government's financial situation is hanging on by a thread and they are opting to save money by suspending study leave. The UDP's Shadow Minister for education - who is also the former minister of education yesterday said that the across - the - board cuts puts certain districts at a disadvantage:
Hon. Patrick Faber- former Minister of Education
"What the UDP would have done in an instance like that is to look at areas where the numbers of trained teachers are probably higher than in other areas and look to close off study leave in those particular areas. Let's say for instance, in the primary level, in the northern part of the country, in the central and western regions we have a higher number of trained teachers. The south, the situation there is not as good. So we have to keep on going there. That is what we would have recommended. We would have recommended some kind of shift. But you would not have said to the teachers all together: no study leave for you."
We spoke via phone with the president of the Belize Teachers Union, Elena Smith who said that the memo was not very specific and teachers had contacted her with various questions so she wrote to the CEO for clarification. She is awaiting a response.
Many Answered The Call, Few Were Chosen
Earlier this week, the Home Affairs Minister was also asked about the ongoing recruiting process which will see the addition of a little more than 200 new constables to the Police Department. As we reported, 3,000 Belizeans signed up with the intent to land one of those desired posts, but the reality is that over 90% of this year's applicants won't make the final cut.
Musa told the press that he would want private sector entities to seek some of these promising young workers with good educational backgrounds. Here are those comments from Wednesday:
Hon. Kareem Musa- Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries
"The turn out was overwhelming. I want to take the opportunity to thank all applicants who applied for the position to serve in the Belize Police Department. We want to make it an honourable profession. We have been getting a lot of qualified Belizeans applying for the post. Over 3000 of them. It was narrowed down the other day to 2200 based on those who had a clean police record, that is essential, and those who had at the very least a high school diploma. And so, 2200 of those officers took the exam and we are currently reviewing those exams and we should have the results by Monday the 25th of January to see who all have passed the exam. Obviously, again, there will have to be another filtration process because, like I said, 2200 and there are only 225 jobs. So, I think that anybody in the private sector should reach out to the police department to get access to this database of all of these qualified individuals who have clean records who have great degrees that they can use in the workplace. So it is a good database for us to use with other private sector enterprises to get these individuals employed because we don't have the budget to higher 2200. We only have the budget for 225, for an intake of 225. So, I look forward to an excellent intake-95 in the coming months."
