Graham Creek Primary School was founded in 2001 by the current principal, Jose Cuc, after he realized that despite the remoteness of the village, the children still needed an education. And 12 years later, the school now caters to 30 bright, young students.
But like every school in Belize, it has gone through hardships over the past two years of the pandemic. And now it will literally take a village to help the students catch up on everything they missed out. And they'll have to do so while contending with the normal obstacles of keeping such a small school running.
Courtney Menzies spoke to the principal yesterday and has this story.
The pandemic hit the tiny school of Graham Creek hard because without electricity - which would not come until 2021 - there was no online learning, and definitely no homework at night. But this little school has gotten the greenlight to reopen its doors and the principal said the children are glad to be back, even if it's only a couple days for the week.
Jose Cuc, Principal, Graham Creek Primary School
"They are very happy, I think they are tired of being at home, when I look at them now, they're into learning right now so that's the way I see it now."
"We are using the two days shift system, we have the Monday/Wednesday and the Tuesday/Thursday. The Monday/Wednesday, for Tuesday when they are not here, we give them a package to take home. And it's the same thing with the Tuesday/Thursday, on Wednesday they have work to do on a daily basis, it's a shift system that we are using."
But being back in class is only a start for these young students, since they had fallen far behind in the last two years. But with the latest donation of five laptops from the Ministry of Education, Cuc is hopeful that they can bridge that gap.
Jose Cuc, Principal, Graham Creek Primary School
"They are far behind, I've been lobbying for them to get laptops to actually put them online because I am using my personal computer, for example the BDAT I was administering that on my laptop, it's only one for the whole school but since we are getting now, it will be of more use to us."
Courtney Menzies:
"So you feel like it's possible to bring the kids back up to where they're supposed to be?"
Jose Cuc, Principal, Graham Creek Primary School
"Yes, we hope to reach them but two years is a lot, we lose a lot, so it will take about two or three years to get them back to where they are, it depends how fast but usually, kids, when they see gadgets or laptop, they are into it these days, they hurry get used to it so hopefully we will reach at that spot very soon."
And while the pandemic problems aren't unique to only Graham Creek's school, they have other issues that many larger schools don't face, including a low enrollment numbers and sharing classrooms - that means you can find infant two students learning right next to the standard one class.
Jose Cuc, Principal, Graham Creek Primary School
"It's being flexible, sometimes you have to go outside, you borrow things from the other teachers, they can help you, what works for them, because some of the grade, it's not an easy thing, it's very hard, you don't get the number of minutes for each class so it is multi-tasking."
"This year we don't have any standard six, we only have standard five but last year we had standard six."
Courtney Menzies:
"How come there's no standard six this year?"
Jose Cuc, Principal, Graham Creek Primary School
"Well actually there was no infant one for that year, for this year, so actually there was no infant one, there was no population at the time so I guess it's an exceptional year, I think all schools actually face that sometimes."
But for many of these students, standard six is the end of the line since their parents can't afford to send them to high school.
Jose Cuc, Principal, Graham Creek Primary School
"We have one or two that are fortunate to complete high school, but majority of them they stay behind, it's a pity. I tried my best like this year, I tried my best to enroll them, but it's the parents, it's costly because they have to leave home, not much economy activity happening here and to get the money to a boarding school, it's really tough. Hopefully the Ministry of Education can help or other people within the diaspora because these are the future of Belize. We're here, it's far, yes, but it's a peaceful village."
The partners for this project include GEF Small Grants Program, UNDP Belize, Plenty Belize, and the Ministry of Rural Transformation. The engineers, who initially trained in India, have formed their own company, Belize Power Connect Limited. Later on, we'll have more form Graham Creek.
