Teachers complain to B.N.T.U. about curriculum changes

Elena Smith

Recently, the Ministry of Education’s representative for quality assurance, John Newport, commented on complaints made by teachers with regard to implementing changes to the national curriculum in several subjects, especially Health and Family Life Education. Newport said sufficient consultation had been done and the curriculum is the Ministry’s broad outline from which teachers must draw their individual lesson plans and do further research when needed. But the Belize National Teachers’ Union is planning in its weekend meeting to address teachers’ concerns of how the curriculum translates to their classrooms.

Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U.

“Our teachers have shared concerns, because we have to prepare our units. And these things take time to prepare, and so you prepare one this year and then by the time next year comes, there is a change in the curriculum and you have to go and do those units all over again. And so teachers are concerned with the number of times changes are made, because it puts more work on them, and it takes away time from them to prepare for their classrooms: to prepare their charts and everything that they must prepare, the games and so forth. When these things are done, there is not always sufficient information given to teachers, so that they can get a good understanding of what the changes are and what they are expected to do. And so those are the concerns and those will be addressed when we meet – to see, because we need to get from them exactly what they are concerned about, so that we can determine how we are going to address that.”