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And while the Ministry is setting standards in schools, for many high schoolers, they aren't worried about standards, they're thinking about their personal safety. For many, schools are a battleground -a negotiation between cyberbullying and physical threats.
Our summer intern CJAY Mejia knows it all too well - and asked the Minister about that:
Reporter:
"So me as a previous or recent high school graduate, and one of the most persistent issues that we had in the past is bullying and fighting and you know violence throughout the schools. So what is the ministry of education doing to change and to counter the violence and cyber bullying in schools?"
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"You're right. That's very challenging work. and, you know, we have a lot of programs that we have launched, the Ministry of Education over the past three and a half years, that are focused on improving the school environment."
"As you said, making sure that, when our students go to school, when our teachers go to school, that they are in a safe, welcoming environment. So one of the big initiatives we launched, of course, is the the MORE campaign, which is all about trying to ensure that, we are doing more for Belize, we're being more for Belize."
"Violence, there's absolutely no place for violence in our schools. one of the critical issues that we have been working on is counseling."
"How can we provide more counselors in our schools? So that we, our students, have an opportunity to engage with persons when they're facing problems and discuss those challenges and issues."
