G.O.B. to Extend Subsidies to Second Form; 11,000+ to Benefit

Patrick Faber

Minister Faber also announced that the Government of Belize, through the Ministry of Education, will be extending the subsidy for students to second form. So come the new school year, over eleven thousand students in high schools across the country will have an opportunity to further their education. Faber says that the process has changed and all students, who want to attend high school, stand to benefit. 

Patrick Faber, Minister of Education

“We are pleased to announce the number of subsidies given this year. When we started off almost a decade ago, there was a very tedious process for applying for the subsidy. You had to submit your parents income tax forms and all of that; none of that now. In fact, in three of our six districts, it is given automatically for the entire district. In the other three districts it is given in the rural areas, except for the municipalities. And those municipalities, they are interviewed and we are pleased to announce that by and large, the majority of the students are getting it. Of the seven thousand fifteen students who are in standard six this year, in excess of six thousand are being given the subsidies this year and for us that is a great accomplishment. And if you add that to the about five thousand students who were in first form last year or this year, and are transitioning to second, we are at a good eleven thousand students who are benefiting from government’s subsidy initiative and for us that is big.”

Faber says that the next move is to extend the subsidy initiative to the four years of high school.