In last Sunday's edition of The Guardian Newspaper, there were allegations that the government was paying school fees for students attending Horizon Academy, which is a private school.
The article claimed that two students received $2,000 each and another received a grand. Afterwards, there was another $4,000 dollars in student financial assistance transferred to the school.
Yesterday, we asked the Minister Of Education if this is a possible conflict of interest - since the CEO is the Ministry's accounting officer. He denied that and explained that he's the one who approves financial assistance for students, and he does so regardless of which school they attend as long as he believes there is a legitimate need:
Hon. Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"She doesn't approve that, the CEO is, her integrity is absolutely beyond question, no one should call her integrity into question. I approve assistance to students all across this country, I do that, across the country, there is no policy that students who go to private schools are not eligible for assistance, absolutely it's true that the great majority of our assistance and support goes to students at government schools or denominational schools but we also help students based on need, based on their academic record, so we make no apologies for that and I am the one who approves those assistance, the CEO knows nothing about that in terms of that type of assistance and I have approved assistance to different schools, some to Hummingbird, some to Belize Elementary, some to Horizon Academy, different schools where it is clear to me that there is a need within that family for support."
"Where a family comes to me, and CEO has nothing to do with this, where a family comes to me and makes a case that they need that level of support to keep a child in school who would otherwise not be able to be in school, we are very happy to provide that level of support and I am absolutely prepared to put up our record as the government and as a ministry of education in terms of financial assistance and a level of support we provide to students in a fair and equitable manner across this country against any record of the past administration."
