International Literacy Day celebrated at schools across the country

Literacy and numeracy…together with comprehension are all hallmarks of learning. Today, primary schools across the country celebrated International Literacy Day with activities geared towards reading and writing in various forms including storytelling and poetry. News Five’s Isani Cayetano caught up with one school making the most of the special occasion.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

International Literacy Day 2013 was celebrated today at primary schools across the country with activities geared towards reading and writing.  Lurleen Betson-Gamboa, of the Ministry of Education, was busy doing rounds today and we caught up with her at All Saints Primary School where the students were engaged in storytelling.

Lurleen Betson-Gamboa

Lurleen Betson-Gamboa, Ministry of Education

“September eighth every year is scheduled to be International Literacy Day but since this year September eighth [falls on a] Sunday we are celebrating today which is September sixth.  So we have schools across the country of Belize, we have Dangriga and we also have Belmopan who are engaged in activities encompassing literacy.  One of the things is we try to encourage our schools to ensure that literacy isn’t only within the schools but outside as well.  We encourage them to do a lot of games, a lot of activities to bring it alive.”

Betson-Gamboa doubled as a narrator this afternoon before a rapt audience of students.

Lurleen Betson-Gamboa

“Today I am going around to the schools.  You’ll notice that we have board games, we have poetry, we have dramatization from teachers, from media personnel coming.  We have libraries right across the board.  We are celebrating under the theme literacy and peace, that’s the general, overall theme but in Belize we tweaked it a bit so our theme is ’promoting literacy for a peaceful Belize.” 

Isani Cayetano

“Why was it necessary in terms of incorporating the two ideas, literacy and peace, particularly in Belize City?”

Lurleen Betson-Gamboa

“Like I said before, literacy isn’t only within the schools and we believe that if you are literate you are able to make better choices.  You’re able to make decisions that will benefit you both academically, as well as socially.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.