Education consortium meets to coordinate efforts

Belizeans are seeking university level education in record numbers … and with limited resources, local institutions of higher learning need all the help they can get. Fortunately, as News Five’s Kendra Griffith discovered, Belize is not without friends in high places.

Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Administrators from tertiary level institutions across Belize and the United States are meeting for two days at the Biltmore Plaza this week for a COBEC conference.

Brenda Armstrong, Sec. Treasurer, COBEC
“COBEC is the Consortium for Belize Educational Cooperation. It was formed way back in the 1980’s and since then between Belizean institutions and U.S. institutions, there has been a lot of collaboration and support so that students in Belize, and faculty, as well can benefit from the opportunities that exist.”

The organisation meets bi-annually, once in Belize and once the U.S., to report on activities and further their joint efforts.

Brenda Armstrong
“This year we are hosting a parallel presentation for librarians. So today, at another venue, there will be a presentation on what resources are available for libraries through the network that exists and all the librarians in Belize will benefit from that—all the librarians at tertiary institutions I should say.”

In his keynote address, Minister of Education Francis Fonseca encouraged the participants to continue working together for a better society.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
“Colleagues, your conference presents an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come and the challenges ahead, to promote new ideas, new vision, and a stronger sense of collective endeavour. Working together, we must formulate relevant, workable national policies and strategies to accelerate the pace of development, to strengthen government structures, to promote social cohesion, and to nurture the creative spirit of our people.”

“We must collaborate on the development of a structured, sustainable student loan programme at concessionary interest rates. No Belizean who desires and has the capacity for higher education should be denied that opportunity because of a lack of funding. Waste and inefficiency are enemies of your institution and must be regarded as such.”

Funding higher education was just one of the topics discussed at the previously held Education Summit and Tertiary Education Conference … And according to COBEC Secretary Treasurer and Wesley Junior College Dean, Brenda Armstrong, those issues are being acted upon.

Brenda Armstrong
“Right now we are focussing our energies in trying to address some of the critical issues that came out of those two forums and I would say that we are in a good time because people are focus, people are trying to intentionally address some of the issues. One particular area is accreditation, and once we do that, quality assurance, teacher viability, programme relevance, all those things become key issues and if we focus on that, we will uplift our system.”

In the interim, Belizeans are taking advantage of the opportunities provided by institutions abroad, such as Western Kentucky University.

Dr. John Bonaguro, Western Kentucky University
“We’ve had a number of projects here working in Belize, particularly with providing scholarships for students to come and study at Western Kentucky University. But also we’ve had a very active programme with teacher education where we’ve had our student teachers come down and spend a semester here working in the Belize schools, providing educational opportunities.”

And starting next year, Western Kentucky is planning on taking their collaborative efforts out of the classroom and into the neighbourhood.

Dr. John Bonaguro
“Our purpose for being here is to really plan to identify a community where we can have in place by January of ’08 a service learning project with a community and a village in Belize where we can bring our faculty down and our students and provide some help and human services projects for that three week period in January. But we want to build upon that, we want to do it every year in that same community, based upon the community’s need, to improve the health and welfare of residents in that community.”

For more information on COBEC, you can visit their website at www.COBEC.org. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.

The next COBEC conference is scheduled for July in Hawaii. COBEC’s Belizean members include U.B., Galen, and all the nation’s junior colleges.