Literacy programme praised by minister
Reading and writing are fundamental skills needed to survive and prosper in any society. Most of us acquire that knowledge in primary school, but there are still those who fall through the cracks and live for years without ever reading a book or filling out a job application. In an effort to rid the country of illiteracy, the Ministry of Education has launched a communication skills programme to tutor adults who want to learn to read and write. Minister of Education Cordel Hyde was present at today’s ceremony marking the end of the three month project.
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Education
“Well you have almost seventy-five people who did not know how to speak and write English properly, getting an opportunity to learn how to speak and write English. I think it makes a big difference in their lives.”
“Over the last two and half years we’ve reached some two thousand persons. In fact during the last two summers, and we’ll do it again this year, we utilizing the sixth formers and the University students and the high school students in terms of training persons. Last year we focused primarily on the southern part of the country. The year before we took on the whole country. As you know there are a lot of persons who have come to Belize from Honduras, Guatemala, and other places, who don’t live here but have kids here but they can not communicate in English properly so our tasks is to make them function also. This is one of many programmes that are ongoing.”
Sakinah Muhammed, Nat’l Co-ordinator, Communication Skills Prog.
“This programme is a pilot project and we’re calling it the Community Service Programme. It is a partnership between the Ministry of Education’s communications skills and five high schools of Belize City to see if together we could do community service literacy work. The objective of this programme is to foster a spirit of volunteerism within the secondary students, within the context of the work that we do. Volunteerism on a whole is good, but we wanted to see if we can get secondary students excited in giving of their time to improving the literacy situation in Belize.”
The programme’s organizers say that it could not have been a success without the assistance of students of Excelsior, Canaan, Edward P. Yorke, and St. John’s High School and sixth form.
