Open School Program to be Expanded in Belize

Sheldon Samuels

The concept of open schooling actually began at Gwen Lizarraga High School Even Division back in 2009. The workshop, however, will ensure that administrators of the evening division and ITVETs can support teachers for the online platform. The policy management workshop is expected to empower the stakeholders involved.

Dr. Sheldon Samuels, ACE Coordinator

“The policy management workshop is just the first stage in the bigger, larger scheme of things in terms of what we want to do with COL in terms of ensuring that we are able to write those subject areas for the online platform and not necessarily only for the evening divisions, but also for the ITVETs. We have been able to look at four areas, I think, that we want to write.”

Johannes Hendrikz

Dr. Johannes Hendrikz, Senior Specialist, Open Schooling (COL)

“We must not think that what we do here does not speak to a world crisis that we have. And let me just share with you a broader picture. In 2016, UNESCO reported that more than two hundred and sixteen million children, youth, are out of school and that number annually is growing. This is a global education crisis. It is reported on the ministry’s website that three out of five who is eligible to study in the secondary school education is not in school. So we also have a challenge here. So what we see in the world is also happening here. The question is…can we decrease that issue via conventional schools.”

The Commonwealth Of Learning is an intergovernmental organization established by the Heads of States of Commonwealth countries to support the countries in areas of education, agriculture, TVETs and technology.