Is the education system inadequate?
In light of recent findings that as a country we are behind in education, we asked the question on Tuesday night: Do you think the education system is antiquated and therefore failing to address our developmental needs? Eighty percent of our viewers thought that the system is not entirely to blame. One viewer opined that “as a people we need to have the mentality of success to improve our living standards for a brighter future.” Another said “we need competent people to make sure our children are in an environment where they can develop learning and study skills”. Twenty percent of our viewers, however, thought the system is not antiquated. Send your comments and responses using your SMART phones to 8686 or post your vote on our e-poll at channel5belize.com. You can also send an email with your comments to questions@channel5belize.com.
FORGET THE EDUCATION SYSTEM……….. ARE THERE JOBS FOR THOSE WHO GET AN EDUCATION???????????????????????????
There are many untrained people that are being given teaching jobs and those that are trained teachers being ignored. I say so because i am a trained teacher but being denied because people that didn’t majored in the teaching field given first priority. WHAT THE HELL DO THEY KNOW ABOUT TEACHING CHILDREN IF THEY DIDN’T GET TRAINED TO TEACH!!!
It is indeed unfortunate that very few took notice (and even less commented) a few years when the Ministry of Education took the decision to effectively eliminate Beginners (“ABC” as we knew it) from the primary schools.
The result is that our children now enter primary school at the Infant 1 level, whether prepared or not. Those who are fortunate enough to afford good private preschools (I know of no government funded preshools in the city) get priority; the others, if lucky enough to still get accepted, start behind.
But the reality is that many families cannot afford the now additional monthly $30- $50 preschool fees per child and the children are immediately marginalized, since they can’t get a space or otherwise never enter the school system. Even those who are accepted in primary schools from the largely unregulated preschools come with varying states of readiness, ranging from mediocre preparation at those “baby sitting” outfits (disguised as preschools) to high quality preparation from the few good preschools.
Then we actually wonder and lament about the dismal failures our children experience yearly when the dreadful PSE results are announced.
It is not that our children are failing, but that we are failing them!
Yes, the educational system is wholly inadequate. We have all these high-powered and highly-paid technocrats in the Ministry of Education but we still don’t seem to be able to get it right even at the most basic and beginner’s level.
Dear New 5,
In reference to your epoll, dated 28th July, 2010 on whether our education system is inadequate, my comment is as follows:
I am appalled by how few Belizeans can actually comfortably conduct a fluent conversation in standard English.
I have lived and travelled internationally and have found that most people/countries are trying to learn English. It’s amazing that so many Belizeans cannot speak English despite the fact that we have English as our official language.
I believe we need to go back to basics when it comes to education if we plan to make it internationally as a country. Learn to speak English properly, the international language of business. I am certain it will surely open doors of opportunities to more of us.