BELTRAIDE convenes science scholars
Belizean PhD’s and other education experts are meeting at the Belize Institute of Management to exchange ideas and come up with a proposal for the implementation of the Belizean Professorship Programme that will be incorporated into the University of Belize curriculum. A total of 7 Belizean professors are participating in the weekend forum. The programme is the brainchild of Dr. Louis Zabaneh, the former Executive Chairman of the Belize Trade and Investment Development Service, which is the forum’s coordinator. Dr. Zabaneh says the Belizean Professorship Programme is the first stage at a plan to attract Belizean experts in the hard sciences like math, physics, chemistry and biology. Zabaneh says these areas will then form the basic building blocks for fields in engineering and other related specialties urgently needed for Belize’s future development.
Dr. Louis Zabaneh
“The idea is to bring PhD’s in sciences who are abroad or who are in Belize at this time to come and consult and discuss with the relevant education officials here to sort and see what would be the be the best way forward in terms of incorporating them into the broader educational picture here in Belize. Especially now with the formation of the University of Belize.”
“Some ideas that have come out so far is that some of them would want to be employed as professors and be able to do research, others may be able to come in the summers because some of them already have tenure tracts at universities in the U.S., so those are some of the things that we want to work out this weekend.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Who will be attending the forum?”
Dr. Louis Zabaneh
“Well right now…today for example, we are working as a group, sharing our ideas, getting to work with each other. This afternoon we will be meeting with U.B. secretariat officials and then tomorrow–well between tonight and tomorrow–we will be writing a recommendations paper that will be presented to the Prime Minister and Minister Fonseca, Minister of Education, Hyde, U.B. secretariat people and potential sponsors such as the embassies, I.D.B.
The forum which comes to an end on Saturday is sponsored by private sector companies and the Government of Belize.
