C.A. Ministers of Education meet in Belize

The twenty-fourth meeting of the Education and Cultural Coordination for Central America, CECC, officially opened in Belize today. Twelve national secretaries of the Ministries of Education and Culture for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Belize are taking part. News Five attended the inaugural ceremony, which featured addresses from Prime Minister Said Musa and Minister of Education Francis Fonseca.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
?In May of 2004, we here in Belize convened a National Education Summit to discuss the challenges faced and to forge a plan of action for the way forward. Later this month we will unveil that plan of action, which calls for bold and decisive steps to retool and fine-tune our education system to allow for the delivery of innovative and effective programmes to meet Belize?s education and development needs for the twenty-first century. Key action areas identified in the action plan are early childhood education and development, teacher training, adult and continuing education, curriculum and assessment, technical and vocational education, and special education. These national priorities are also regional priorities, which are reflected in the goals, objectives and programmes of CECC.?

Prime Minister Said Musa
?At a time when Samuel Huntington?s celebrated thesis that the Cold War has been succeeded by ?a clash of civilizations? is resonating so powerfully today around the world. Finding answers to the old questions of how best to manage and mitigate conflict over language, religion, culture, and ethnicity has taken on renewed importance. For Ministers of Education and Culture, whether in Central American or in the Caribbean, this is not an abstract question. If one of the transcendental goals of education is to unleash the positive human potential of every citizen in our respective countries in order to achieve economic success, social progress, political stability, and ultimately to eradicate poverty, then education must successfully confront the challenge of how to build inclusive culturally diverse societies.?

During the ceremony, Fonseca received the Presidency of CECC for Belize from Costa Rica. The meeting concludes on Saturday.