Education in Belize

[4] The growth and transformation of Belizean education took place in a number of phases, each related to important changes within the political and economic history of the country.

[5] During the next phase, from the late 1940s and early 1950s, the educational and social activities of the Jesuits influenced the rise of an anti-British, anticolonial nationalist movement.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jesuits led efforts to redress the elitist, urban-centered biases of postprimary education that perpetuated social inequality and the historical dominance of Belize City over its primarily rural hinterland.

Formal control over education policy and planning passed from British-born clerics and colonial administrators to British-trained Belizeans.

[5] As the demand for education outstripped the capacities of the churches—even the Jesuits—to provide it, interdenominational cooperation grew and the state assumed a more central role.

But the expansion of educational opportunities outstripped the state's resources, leading to an intensified reliance on external aid.

[5] The campus was never built because the PUP was swept out of office in a landslide victory by the rival United Democratic Party (UDP) in December 1984.

Sixth form is a two-year post-secondary course, originally intended to prepare students for the Cambridge Advanced or "A-Level" examinations.

[5] In cultural orientation, education practices, rituals, and valuative criteria spread to Belize's schools from Jesuit institutions in the United States.

Jesuit influence even affects such traditional bastions of British pedagogy as the Anglican and Methodist secondary schools and the government-run Belize Technical College.

Technical-vocational education programs by the United States Agency for International Development promise to erode further British pedagogical legacies.

Results from the Child Activity Survey indicate that 12 percent of working children ages 5 to 14 years do not attend school.

Sacred Heart Junior College[permanent dead link‍][8] (SHJC) in San Ignacio, Cayo district of Belize started a project that attempts to get the basic requirement of having an Internet connection in every primary school and by having the schools establish a web presence via the free Google Sites for education.

The project, Primary Wireless Web Labs, wishes to get schools to use more technology in the classroom for non-IT classes.

The head of the computer science program and the departments students volunteer their time to coordinate with agencies/organizations to get the free Internet connections, domain names, hosting, etc.

The team at SHJC further encourages the schools to access resources like the Khan Academy, educational YouTube videos, online teaching materials, etc.