Scouts to be incorporated in Primary Schools

The Scouts Association of Belize today received formal approval from the Ministry of Education to pursue its volunteer programme into primary school system. A six point memorandum of understanding signed this afternoon in Belize City officially recognizes the principles of Scouting as a beneficial way of helping young people become positive contributors to their community. Minister of Education Francis Fonseca says the addition of scouting to elementary schools does not mean an added burden to an already packed curriculum, but rather has significant benefits for both students and teachers.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
?We believe the scouting movement represents one of the best opportunities really for our young people who are faced with so many challenges as you know today. In terms of all the responsibilities they have out there, all the risks that are out there in the society, all the specific challenges they face individually on a daily basis. And the Scouting movement is really–as was said today–about building character, about instilling positive values and attitudes in our young people. The scouting movement has always has a relationship with the Ministry of Education and the educational system. So they have been involved in the education system for some years now but we thought it was important now after discussion with them to formalize that relationship and to allow them to participate under the mandate of the Ministry of Education.?

Erasmo Franklin, Director, Belize Scout Association
?We are formalizing a relationship with the Ministry whereby they are recognizing scouting as an educational movement,
non-formal as it, but an educational movement. So that is a great step forward. It?s a partnership between us and the Ministry whereby the schools can be approached, and which we are doing right now anyway, we have been doing it for a while, but this is formalizing it. And I think this is going to,in a way, benefit teachers.?

Francis Fonseca
?It will allow those members of the Scouting Association who are enrolled in our educational institutions primarily, this is focussed on primary schools students, to participate in these programmes after school and allow the teachers who are prepared to participate in these programmes to earn credits towards their licenses and that sort of thing. So we thought it was a meaningful way of trying to get more teachers involved because there is a direct benefit to them. As well as get students involved. As I pointed out we have over sixty thousand kids in primary school, that provides an excellent opportunity for the Scouting movement to move in, it?s a captive market as I said in a sense, for them to move in and engage those young people.?

Erasmo Franklin
?We are basically preparing the way for the country ten, fifteen, twenty years from now. We develop leadership skills in youths. We develop character in youths. We develop the good old moral standards in youths. We develop the physical standards. We develop the spiritual standards. Scouts, through their promise, promise to believe in God. They promise to love their country and they promise to be of service to other people at all times.?

Officials of the Belize Scout Association say there are currently two thousand, three hundred scouts in eighty-three groups spread out around the country. President of the Belize Scout Association Dr. Erasmo Franklin says with the signing of the memorandum of understanding today, the number of scouts is expected to double within the next five years.