Counting the Dollars to Fund Literacy Program

Patrick Faber

The literacy campaign among primary school children is a joint initiative between public and private agencies as well as non-profit organization and the Ministry of Education. At today’s launch, Scotia Bank Belize made a donation of fifteen computers. Education Minister Patrick Faber says that the commitment will see financial and tangible resources pumped into the campaign.

Patrick Faber, Minister of Education

“There is a lot of money involved and this is why we have been leaning on our partners, but also the budget of the Ministry of Education; we’ve spent so much in training our teachers. You saw MSVU, the university that has been helping us to train in terms of literacy, math and science. These are initiatives that form a part of the project; IDB, the twenty million dollars that was committed some time ago. So yes, money is involved. It is not that we are just hoping to make this push without putting our money where our mouth is. The regular budget of the ministry is being put there. We also have our partners, UNICEF…you’ve heard Scotia Bank, Pathlight who come in and they bring resources. Peace Works; PricewaterhouseCoopers who have traditionally come to Belize. When they come, all those people bring an additional suitcase with books for our children. So we have many partners, a lot of money is involved yes, but there is no cost too high that we can’t find the money for because this is so important for our nation’s development.”