Education in Belize

Belizeans value education very highly. As a testament to that, Belize is ranked 54th in the world in terms of expenditures in education. Another interesting fact about Belize and schooling is that there are more women who are literate than the men folk. Usually, it is the other way around even for countries with compulsory schooling, but in Belize, it seems the women have this women empowerment attitude that is missing in other countries. Based from the year 2000 census figures, Belize had a 76.9% literacy rate, although low at that time, the number has sure to have gone up as the average enrolment rate from 2003 to 2008 was observed to be at 97%. Another astounding fact about the government of Belize is that they impose a fine of about $100 to the parents of the child who will not make their children attend school. The fine also covers failure of the parents to make their children attend regularly.

When a child turns 6, the parents are required to enroll them to primary school.  Although primary schooling is free, the books and other expenses are not and so it takes quite a strain for the poor families to have a child in school. Primary schooling is an 8-year course and so by the time the children are 14-years old, they can then proceed to secondary school. The sad thing however is that the government can only subsidize up to primary school. Secondary school and vocational programs are on a limited access basis only. Usually, only half of those who passed primary schooling can go on to advance to secondary schools because half the number of the secondary schools is privately run or being ran by religious organizations.  

The government does not have enough resources for now to totally support the education of all eligible citizens up to secondary schools. Nevertheless, they have a good take off point to start from if ever educational reforms will be implemented as they won’t have much change to make on their primary schooling programs.