New educational program to take kids off the streets

arlette gomez

The statistics on out-of-school children are far from impressive; eleven thousand children are not receiving any form of education or training.  Come this new school year, a programme attempting to improve the grim statistics will kick off at the existing Excelsior High School on Faber’s Road. The idea is to offer remedial and vocational courses to those who did not make it to the regular classrooms. But what will happen to Excelsior High and the one hundred and thirty seven students who attend that institution?  Well according to the Ministry of Education’s Public Relations Officer, Arlette Gomez, the transformation will not adversely affect anyone.

Via Phone: Arlette Gomez, Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Education

“The students that are presently attending Excelsior, we will be making provisions to place them in the other three government high schools that are on the south side of Belize City.  We have looked into it and we are certain that that will not create an overcrowding situation at those other three schools. We will have some remedial courses like the basic math and English and social studies to get some of the children up to the level where they can sit the PSE exams and maybe move on to high school.  We will have some VOTEC courses also for those children who want to take that route in choosing a career path or something like that.  So we will be looking at a completely differently curriculum from what is presently at Excelsior High School.  We will try to tap into the instructors that we have at the Cadet Corps which now falls under the Ministry of Education and Youth.  We will try to teach these children some life skills, give them the basic courses that they need and to give some of them some hands-on VOTEC training.”

Marion Ali

“What will happen to the teachers who are there now?”

Arlette Gomez

“Those teachers will be placed in the general other school populations.  Nobody is going to lose their jobs.  That has never been an issue and that will not happen.”

Gomez says the students who attend the new institution will not be charged for the classes.