Science, technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math - these are known as the STEAM subjects, and coming in September, Belize will be having its first school dedicated to them. "Itz'at" - which translates to "wise one" - will have state of the art labs and a direct and advanced focus on those core subjects, while still including others like history.
And this high school will be very different from the normal ones because, according to the Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, it will ensure that the students aren't just taught concepts, but real world application as well. And, he added, that already standard six students have been signing up.
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of State, MOE
"Our national curriculum framework has still been used as a guide for the development of the curriculum so students will still have opportunities to learn about our cultures, our history, our political system, etc. so a lot of the topics in Belizean studies will still be covered but what they will have is an environment that is geared up to build their competencies in the sciences, in the applications of these concepts, to see how the theories in science are converted into technology that can be applied into innovative applications of those concepts. So they will have what are called maker spaces and in those makers spaces they will have state of the art equipment that can be used to construct certain designs, for example, they will be using what engineers are familiar with, auto cad, and other types of software, so that engineering environment, that engineering philosophy, will be permeating throughout everything that they do."
"I believe we will have oversubscription if you want to use that term. From my discussions yesterday with the principal, for each school, and they just started to visit primary schools, for each school, they are getting 5-10 applicants already on their online application. So I am anticipating we will then have to figure out a way to equitably grant seats in this school so that students from across a socioeconomic spectrum will have an opportunity to enter this very unique and special school."
But what happens when the students graduate, and then have to further their studies? Will they return to Belize, or will we see an influx of brain drain? Well, Dr Zabaneh explained that the ministry is already one step ahead of this potential problem.
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of State, MOE
"There's always that issue of brain drain that's always been difficult to deal with however our STEAM high school is not being built in isolation. We're also working in our ministry to develop our first national science innovation strategy which will bring together all the various efforts that we're making to move our country forward in terms of innovation of technology. We've started some basic discussions already with UB but UB will be really a flagship institution for the creation of a national science technology and innovation park. UB has about 800 acres of land of which just a small portion is being used. Our vision is to invite other international universities to join up with UB, so you'd have like a basic foundation of a university network that would be on the ground and then we build out a park where we invite technology companies to come in and set up within the park with certain incentives to establish themselves. Now the companies we're looking at, we're looking at technology that is going to be relevant to our development, so for example, we want to look at the latest technologies in irrigation for agriculture. we want to look at applicable technologies in medicine where for example we can have surgeries being done in Belize with a partial team here physically but with other doctors for other countries being a part of that operation. In other areas as well, we're looking at in fact having those companies come in that could set up and then have the environment for graduate of schools like this STEAM school and from UB and other institutions have the job opportunities to be able to, well, in our case, have them stay in the country."
The school will be located at the back of the ITVET compound, and it already has its principal, John Newport, as well as a vice principal and three teachers. In its initial year, 75 students will have the chance to enroll.
