Education is key for youth turnaround

Today at the Radisson, representatives from various youth organizations met with officials from the Youth for the Future initiative. Their aim: to come up with solutions to the issues affecting Belize’s young people. According to Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Francis Fonseca, if we are looking for answers, we must start with the educational system.

Francis Fonseca, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office

“Belize has no shortage of youth organizations, many with big staffs and big budgets. Even our own Youth Department, until a few months ago, was a complex bureaucratic maze led by good people with good intentions, trapped in an environment of low expectations and little practical support. Community youth groups, NGO youth groups, church youth groups, political youth groups, youth development officers, youth councils, literally hundreds of soldiers in the youth army, spending an estimated two million annual, waging war on the so called youth problems, with little to show for it. There are many factors and issues affecting the youth agenda, but I believe we have to focus on two primary areas if we are to have any meaningful impact. These are education and values… and they are inseparable.”