Posted: Thursday, May 12, 2016. 8:39 p.m. CST
Dr. Carol Babb
By Aaron Humes: For several years now the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports has partnered with Pricewaterhousecoopers and Peacework to promote and teach financial literacy to Belize’s students.
In the Belize District, summer classes have been held and now financial literacy and entrepreneurship form part of the curriculum.
Annually for the last three years during the Education Showcase, the Ministry, Peacework and Price host an all-day activity showing off the students’ knowledge.
Chief Education Officer Dr. Carol Babb said this year’s theme was innovation in education, and some of the students’ ideas may well be adopted by the Ministry – they too, after all, are stakeholders.
First place in the competition went to Ocean Academy of Caye Caulker. Its team received 750 dollars each and an I-pad, while the school received a laptop computer and the team’s teacher/mentor got 1 thousand dollars. 2nd was San Pedro High School and third went to Ladyville Technical High School.
According to Dr. Babb, the competition is set to expand to the districts, where training has also been held.
Meanwhile there was a business expo featuring primary schoolers and technical and vocational students from the various ITVET institutes. The Ministry’s Adult and Continuing Education coordinator, Dr. Sheldon Samuels said participants built projects based on problems in their school and how they would solve them.
St. Luke Methodist School; James Garbutt Seventh Day Adventist; and St. Mary’s Anglican Primary finished in that order, while Stann Creek ITVET beat their Corozal counterparts to the top place. Each school won a laptop.
As with the high schools, Dr. Samuels told us that the Ministry’s coordinator for financial literacy and entrepreneurship will look over each school’s project for possible implementation and expansion.
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