Ministry of Education Tackles Teacher Shortage in Belize District

The Ministry of Education is working to issue teaching licenses to tackle a shortage of educators in the Belize District. This week, several schools in the Belize District faced difficulties finding enough teachers for their classrooms. The shortage was attributed to two factors: not having enough teachers in the district and several teachers not being able to renew their licenses. Last month, the ministry said that about 3% of educators hadn’t submitted their applications for renewal yet. This week, Minister of Education Francis Fonseca provided an update on the number. 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education: “I think there were 2,300 and something teacher licenses that were up for renewal. My understanding is that over 2022 had been issued and approved about a week ago and over the past few days I believe another 100 and others a little over 100 have been approved. My understanding is that there are 54 or so where there are, there’s lacking information that’s lacking. We discussed that yesterday with the BNTU. So they have committed to engaging with those teachers and providing us with the information that’s necessary. Our objective is never to reject licenses or to take teachers out of the classroom, but we have to follow a process that is in place to make sure that teachers are in fact qualified to be in the classroom. So that’s where it is in terms of the numbers.”

Fonseca recently met with the Belize National Teachers Union to iron out issues in the education sector.