Turks and Caicos students on field trip to Belize

Field trips are regular events in the school year, but tonight we’ll introduce you to a group of students that have travelled across the Caribbean Sea to get a better grade. News Five’s Janelle Chanona explains.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
On Thursday, twenty-nine students and four of their teachers from Turks and Caicos arrived in Belize for a seven day tour of the country.

Audrey Semple DeCruz, Teacher
“Every year the Clement Howell High School in the Turks and Caicos island goes on a school trip to enhance the student’s performance in the C.X.C. exams. That is simply because in the Turks and Caicos we do not have the features that are available in other Caribbean territories. And so while the students are exposed to quite a lot of theory in the text books, they do not really see these things. For example, rivers and mountains and so on and factories, industries; those things are not available in the Turks and Caicos island. So in order to enhance their performance in C.X.C., we usually take them to different Caribbean territories and this year we have selected Belize.”

According to the organisers, while here the students will be visiting various places.

Audrey Semple DeCruz, Teacher
“We’re going to be going to the Metrological station; we are going to be going to museums and factories. There are no factories on Turks and Caicos Island, so the children are going to be excited about everything that’s going to be happening on this trip.”

The fourth form students paid their way to Belize through various fundraising efforts.

Kerchelle Bain, Student
“I knew it was a place that was maybe it was a little underdeveloped, but it rich in culture, it still maintained all its culture and everything, so it’s a good experience. It’s a great place to get to know and the history is great also.”

Keithra Adderley, Student
“I’m hoping it’ll be fun, adventurous, and I am excited to learn new and important things because when I go back home to school I know I will have a test about this, so I am really eager to learn about Belize.”

D’Kandro Bain, Student
”So far Belize has a lot of history and I don’t do history, but I really want to get into that history, because it’s kinda fun. They have a lot of monuments and historical sites that I would love to see, the oil factory which my geography teacher told me about which we don’t even see that back home. So I would really love to get a look at it all.”

Stefon Tyndall, Student
“I want to climb a Mayan pyramid.”

Janelle Chanona
“What do you know so far about them?”

Stefon Tyndall
“What do I know about them? They are related to the Amerindians across the Americas, they were very smart, they were ahead of their time. They had a three hundred and sixty-five day calendar and they even used to study stars, right? So they are smart people and that’s why I am interested in them because they are smarter than everybody else around their time.”

Dashara Fulford, Student
“My first time travelling to a country in Central America, so I was very excited and I read—since primary school we learnt that you guys were the only country in Central America that spoke English. I know that you guys have rice and sugar factories and timber too, I was just told. And that’s pretty much a lot I know about you guys, but I really wanted to get the feel of it in the first hand and how it really looks and stuff, so it was pretty cool when I arrived at the airport here.”

Audrey Semple DeCruz
“Exam results have been better. In fact, because the students see or have hands on experience of these different features in the territories, they excel in their SBAs and likewise their examination results, especially in geography and history where they see more of those things you know.”

The Belize Tourism Board and the Ministry of Tourism assisted in organising the student tour. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.

The student group will return to Turks and Caicos next Thursday.