Minister of Education Comments on Guatemalan Students in Belize

For days we have received reports that dozens of Guatemalans students have been lining up for enrolment at Mount Carmel High School and other schools in Benque Viejo Del Carmen. For years there has been an organized program for the Guatemalan students to come to Belize to study and by the hundreds they arrive by bus in the morning and leave in the afternoon after classes. Given the current circumstances between both countries, On Tuesday, we asked the DPM and Minister of Education Patrick Faber if there is any policy by government to address the issue of Guatemalans entering the country for education.

Patrick Faber, Deputy Prime Minister

“I don’t know that there has been a change in any policy on the part of the Ministry of Education. I don’t know what the position is; you are saying that they are lining up…I don’t know. But what I will tell you is that I am aware that the ministry’s policy is that if it is that a student attends one of our schools that is grant in aid, if that student cannot prove Belizean nationality that student is asked to pay much more. In fact, when you look at even the subsidy; if that student cannot prove Belizean nationality then that student should not get the subsidy. Now if something is going on contrary to that, then I would be surprise to that. But there is no policy that excludes students from other countries from attending schools in Belize other than the simple fact that we may have a different payment plan for them, so to speak. I am not aware of any mass number of students trying to register at Mount Carmel, as you pointed out, but again, because I don’t know I would not be in a position to say any much more than that.”

Patrick Faber

Reporter

“But I imagine it is the regular number of Guatemalan students who register on a yearly basis because we know that that occurs.”

Patrick Faber

“Well I know that it occurs, but to tell you that I know it happens at that alarming rate in this year or any other year for that matter, I am not able to say. I don’t know those figures so I cannot say.”

Reporter

“And as it relates to their immigration documents being in order?”

Patrick Faber

“Well I know that as a part of Belize and Guatemala’s confidence building measures that we had allowed some of this. But look, there are many Belizean students as well who are attending school in Guatemala. We have a number, a large number of students for instance studying medicine in San Carlos and do so at a very low rate; they are not charged a foreign rate or they are not excluded from studying there. While it may not be happening or maybe it is happening right there at the border, in terms of the border municipalities; this is something that we would want to carefully consider because if we reject Guatemalan students just like that, then there might be some repercussions on the other side. But as I know it, this is a part of our confidence building measures that we have agreed to and unless there is a larger decision by the cabinet to back off of this kind of agreement, then I am sorry, we have to follow suit in the Ministry of Education.”