Education Upliftment Project Set to Begin Soon

Last week we told you about the four high schools in Belize City that will be benefiting from the Briceño Administration’s free education program’s initial rollout. The initiative is called the Education Upliftment Project. According the Ministry of Education’s C.E.O., Dian Maheia, a large number of high-school students in Southside Belize City dropped out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those schools and families need support. 

Dian Maheia

Dian Maheia, C.E.O., Ministry of Education

“The four schools that are targeted are Gwen Lizarraga, Excelsior, Maude Williams, Sadie Vernon. So, we know that these are four really important schools to help to capture and engage the population of young people in Southside Belize City. We have done needs assessment surveys, extensive work has been done within the Ministry to try to document what the needs are. I am sure if you have a conversation with anybody they will say, oh, this is what is happening, and this is what they need. We actually have done need assessment surveys to recognize what needs are. Based on what we have found from those surveys, based on communication our officers have had, we have really been able to start to flesh out this project. And, as you said just now, one component is free education. We have spoken about losing students in the pandemic. What we see is that the combined enrollment in those four schools right now is seven hundred and ninety eight, over four high schools. These are schools that have the capacity to hold so many more. This is current. Pre-COVID, one of these schools could easily have held over four hundred students, so to have four schools with a combined enrollment of less than eight hundred is really telling. It lets us know how many students have basically been lost along the way.”