Scores on teachers exam are low

Their scores in some subjects may be improving, but the results of the latest first class National Teachers Exam show that many of our children receive second class instruction. A release from the Ministry of Education reports that only fifty-eight of the one hundred and seventy-eight teachers who sat the exam this summer managed to pass. The test, which is a requirement for working teachers who want to be admitted to study at the U.B. Faculty of Education, covers English language, mathematics, science, literature, history, geography, methods and management, psychology and practice teaching. Success rates for various districts ranged from fifty-five percent in Cayo and Corozal to fifteen percent in Toledo. Teachers in the Belize, Stann Creek and Orange Walk District averaged a twenty-five percent pass rate, with the national average coming in at thirty-two point six percent.