Belize High School attracts potential students with tech savvy programs

The Belize High School opened its doors at the University of the West Indies Campus last September and has had a successful first year. The novelty is that the private school has implemented an interactive technology based teaching system, which the principal, Leticia Eck, says has produced impressive results. Today the school had an open day, with the hope of attracting potential students to its tech savvy programs. They were especially proud of their language program and a teaching tool called the Smart Board. Eck told News Five, it’s first to be introduced to local students.

Leticia Eck, Principal, Belize High School

Leticia Eck

“Today is our second annual open day and we’re here to showcase what Belize High School has to offer to incoming students for the next school year. We want to show them the technological tools that we are using at the moment and to showcase basically what B.H.S. has to offer and how different education can be once you integrate technology into the daily classroom.”

Delahnie Bain

“And it’s focused on two very impressive parts of your teaching system. Could you speak about those?”

Leticia Eck

“Yes, we have introduced the Smart Board technology, which is very, very new. This is the first time it’s being offer to Belizean students and I think that in itself is pioneering efforts on our part. We need to expose our students to what is out there, we need to put them on par with technology. The world is moving at a fast rate in technology and our students will be going out there to study and we want to prepare them for that as well. So, Smart Board Technology is one of the tools that we have introduced. It’s a white interactive blackboard that has moved away from the regular chalkboard, has moved away from just the plain whiteboard. This is an interactive whiteboard and there is so much that it can offer that it increases collaboration and interactivity in the classroom; both teachers and students. We also have our language program; it’s technology based as well. We use the Rosetta Stone, which means that it increases that immersion of the language where the students can actually sit behind their laptops and using the features that it offers, they can actually talk and listen at the same time rather than just sitting in a classroom and listening to grammar and work with that. It certainly caters for greater immersion in the classroom itself.”

In its first year, Belize High School had an enrollment of forty-three students in two first forms and one second form class. Eck says they hope to keep the student population small for effective teaching.