Government Awards $250,000 in Scholarships to Teachers

The Ministry of Education has granted a quarter million dollars’ worth in scholarships to 29 teachers across the country.  On Thursday, Minister Oscar Requena personally delivered the tuition scholarships during a special ceremony.  Of the twenty-nine, eleven were presented to in-service teachers recommended by the Belize National Teachers Union (BNTU). According to Minister Requena, the government is looking to give more attention to educators, ranging from the continuous concerns over the cost of preparing classrooms to further professional development.  

Oscar Requena, Minister of Education: “I have been visiting schools across the country. There is great need for infrastructure development and support but as you know all these issue are down to the budget and that is the major constraint right now but we will continue. We have had several meetings with Madam President Nadia Caliz and members of the BNTU in fact yesterday we had a ceremony in which we reiterated our commitment to teacher education. The Ministry can proudly say that yesterday we awarded a total of 29 scholarships to the total value of $250,000 which we are supporting our teachers. So that is all part and parcel of the continued support, continuous reform that we’re doing in our schools. In relation to the classrooms yes we were making some donations to some schools but those are specifically for government schools. I’m lobbying, I’m working, requesting cabinet in future budgets to consider providing some support to provide relief to our teachers in the classrooms because I want to say to you that we do recognize that our teachers work very hard, they spend a lot of their own money fixing up their classrooms to ensure that the learning ambience, the learning atmosphere is conducive to learning. And there is a cost so we want to see how we can support our teachers.”

The distribution of the scholarships is in line with the Joint Statement signed in January where eleven in-service teachers recommended by the BNTU were awarded tuition scholarships. Meanwhile, an additional fifteen teachers received scholarships through a prior BNTU agreement, while three others were recognized as winners of the Miss BNTU Pageant, bringing the total to twenty-nine teachers benefiting from this initiative.