Compulsory Age for Education is Now Sixteen Years

Today’s cabinet brief also focused on education and what government is doing to increase the age of compulsory education from fourteen to sixteen, taking into consideration that while the change will lead to other legislative and policy adjustments, it is a step in the right direction in preparing Belizean students for life.

Stuart Leslie

Stuart Leslie, Cabinet Secretary

“It’s in its initial stage, yes.  Minister Fonseca yesterday presented after broad consultations with people, like stakeholders in the education sector and so on and looking at, again, this whole of government approach guys.  We have kids out here who are fourteen years old who have been kicked out of school and not in school and out in the streets and so on and they are being lured by gangs and getting into things that they shouldn’t be getting into at that age in their lives.  So the idea of this is for us to do something that’s in line with the rights of the child, but to bring young people and bring these… We say you cannot leave school until you’re sixteen years old.  It is at the beginning stage, you know it’s going to cost some money.  Minister Fonseca is estimating maybe, as we look at the expansion of this program, we’re talking about ten thousand more young people in schools across the country for an additional two years.  So all that has to be worked out and they are working at it over time.  But thank you for that question because it’s an exciting thing and I hope that everybody will join in and support this initiative to move the age for you to leave school in country from fourteen to sixteen.”