Curriculum Reform to Improve National Development

The Ministry of Education is planning the release of its curriculum reform agenda at the beginning of the new academic year in August. The idea, according to Education Minister Francis Fonseca, is to provide better quality education to students by essentially doing away with the fluff.  He says that students have been overloaded and need to learn the subjects that matter.

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“We intend to unveil the new curriculum in August as well and that new curriculum will be much more effective, much more focus, much more targeted curriculum and so that as well will provide with an opportunity to focus more on recovery.” 

Duane Moody

“What kind of immediate changes will we see in the curriculum?”

Francis Fonseca

“We are going to do a full briefing on the curriculum. We are still engaged in some consultations, but again we are looking at fundamental reform. The curriculum is overloaded, it is absolutely overloaded and we intend to reduce the learning outcomes – I’ve talked about this already – and make sure our students are learning what matters. It is critical.  In a country like Belize, we can’t lose sight of the fact that education has to be tied to national development; it has to be tied to economic development, to the national development of our country. So we have to be educating our people to be a part of growing Belize, of developing Belize and equipping them with the skills, the knowledge, the information, the values, the attitudes they need to be effective participants in the development of Belize. So we have to have a much more focused and targeted curriculum.”

According to Fonseca, B.N.T.U. National President Senator Elena Smith has been part of the consultations and so teachers have been fully engaged in the curriculum reform process.