Where Education and Citizen Security Intersect

The Ministry of Education and RESTORE Belize have concluded a series of roundtable discussions to share new ideas and methods in the education response to citizen security.  The goal was sensitize stakeholders on the implementation of school-based responses to citizen security using the principles of Quality Child Friendly Schools.  It also highlighted successes in the implementation of innovative programs and practical approaches in selected schools, including Maud Williams High School and St. John’s Anglican School.  Mary Vasquez is the Director of RESTORE Belize.

Mary Vasquez

Mary Vasquez, Director, RESTORE Belize

“Well this is a roundtable discussion, we’ve held a series of these where we engage with different stakeholders in the education sector to talk about how we can look at education with a citizen security lens.  The fact is that a lot of our schools and a lot of our students are living in the midst of armed violence and that creates very specific needs that may not be present elsewhere, also needs that are not covered in the training curriculum for teachers.  So we need to provide extra information to teachers and we need to provide extra information to schools to support them in dealing with this.  There’s a lot of trauma specifically that children and teachers experience because of the exposure to armed violence and everything that comes with it, the grief and loss and there is so much work being done internationally now that we understand now that trauma actually has a negative effect on our capacity to learn.  So when we’re looking even at the academic results for children we have taken into consideration how much trauma is playing a role in that.”