Teachers Voice Concerns on Competency-Based Teaching: Ministry of Education Gathers Feedback

The Ministry of Education has received feedback on competency-based teaching from some 170 primary and secondary school teachers.  It was back in September 2023 that the ministry rolled out the competency-based approach which has seemingly posed some challenges for both teachers and students.  The feedback from teachers was garnered through a survey conducted by the US-based NGO, IREX which sought feedback from over three hundred educators with just over half of that number responding to the survey questions.  Marcel Ricou, a director at IREX is in the country where he presented the findings this morning.  Ricou noted that the survey was done during the period May to July with teachers attached to government-aided schools. 

Marcel Ricou, Deputy Director of Education Practice, IREX: “And after this pilot year we thought that it would be useful to get teacher’s perspectives on how that year went of this new curriculum both to understand what happened but also to be able to provide some feedback on how the system key stakeholders in Belize can work to strengthen and continue the drive for competency based education to really realize its promise for the country. We sent out surveys to just over three hundred teachers, I think we had responses from around 170 and then we conducted I believe nine focus groups around the country that covered all the districts of the country. This particular study focused on grant aided schools. Part of that was just they were the ones that we were able to get access to quickly. We wanted to get this research done quickly at the end of the school year. The actual work happened from about May to July and then we just published the report a few weeks ago and are very happy to be here to present on it. Generally we see that this first year was a solid start to competency based education. Teachers are able to, a good majority of teachers are able to talk about what is competency based education and what are they supposed to be doing with it in the classroom. We see teachers that are positive about it and think that they see it as something good for the country and a good direction to go. There are some challenges that teachers ask for more support and training in particular that it really is a different way of teaching, of organizing and managing a classroom and so there was a strong message of we want to do this but we would like more support to be able to do it well.”

Ministry of State in the Ministry of Education Dr. Louis Zabaneh says that IREX’s data supports some observations that the ministry had made. He notes that the ministry will be working to get teachers to let go of the traditional education model and embrace competency-based learning. 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of State, MOESCT: “We heard certain concerns that are not surprising to us, concerns for example with the need for more resources and the need for more teacher training and fortunately we have plans that we are working on those two particular areas. That has to do with leadership, right? So we at the ministry need to have a very clear message to our awesome teachers who are working very hard out there that we are doing this in partnership with them, right? That just like how we heard them in terms of preparing lesson plans, preparing those necessary things that they use on a day-to-day basis that takes them an inordinate amount of time. Preparing it by having the best practice teachers do it themselves that lends to a higher level of trust that’s clearly important for us to work as a team. And similarly, with the issue of now moving away from teaching to tests, it is very important for us to have that message that we will work on this together, right? And that even the people at CXC are looking at this more holistically, right? And so I think when teachers understand that this is not something that they’re doing alone, that we’re doing it together, then there is more buy-in. Right? And so, yes, the report has said that we have a percentage of teachers who still want that clarity because they’re saying that if we are using CXCs or tests as the measure of their performance as teachers, then it doesn’t matter what kind of competency-based curriculum we have because they will then continue to do things traditionally so that the students pass the test. Now it is us now as the leadership in the ministry to give them that confidence that listen there is a period of transition that we understand has to occur and we are going to do this together.”

IREX also recommended that the government implement several interventions to aid teachers in the roll out of the competency-based model. Those recommendations include providing teachers and learners with equitable access to technology and project-based learning resources; and increasing alignment between CBE curricula in lower secondary and the CSEC.