Cabinet approves education reform

In news from Tuesday’s Cabinet session, that executive body has approved a comprehensive plan to improve Belize’s educational system. The four year, forty-two million dollar project aims to improve the quality, relevance, efficiency and equity of primary and secondary education. Among the reforms will be standardized testing for students, higher standards for teachers and decentralisation of administration. The programme will be financed by the World Bank, British Department for International Development, and Government of Belize.

And teachers are not the only ones being asked to measure up. Cabinet has announced that beginning April first public officers will no longer be granted automatic salary increments. Instead, a new appraisal system will be introduced to award raises only to those government employees who show improved efficiency in their job performance.