Today Belize’s brightest high school and tertiary level students
were honoured at the CXC and CAPE awards ceremony. Jacqueline Godwin was there.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
The seats inside the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts were filled with proud
parents and peers of the over three hundred secondary students who received
awards and certificates in recognition of their achievements in the Caribbean
Advanced Proficiency Examinations and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate
Examinations. what however was visibly absent from the list of outstanding performance
were names of male students. It was a clean sweep for their female counterparts
like SJC JC’s Stacey Karyn Grinage, the 2009 CAPE most outstanding candidate.
Stacy Karyn Grinage, Most Outstanding CAPE Candidate
“When attending Junior College your main goal is to graduate within
two years. If that is not your goal then what is. Everything else such as clubbing,
dating, etc. is secondary to your goal of graduating. Our parents have made
an investment in us to get a good education and they expect us to be rewarded
greatly and be successful in life. No one invests in something that they know 
will not reap success.”
The CSEC most outstanding candidate is EP Yorke’s Athina Swasey.
Athina Swasey, Most Outstanding CSEC Candidate
“We now certainly know that we have the ability to excel and the confidence
derived from such a distinction is the real reward. Nevetheless our accomplishments
would not have been without support guidance and aid from several individuals.
We must therefore acknowledge our family members, mentors, and instructors who
each contributed to our triumph.”
Unlike 2008, there was an overall improvement in the performance in the 2009
CSEC examinations. Minister of Education Patrick Faber says while he is happy
about the results because the 2009 improved results cannot be interpreted as
a trend he remains cautiously optimistic.
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
“Therefore I commend all schools and their teachers in them who have
contributed to this improvement and encourage all to push for continued improvement,
especially in those areas and subjects where performance remained the same or
showed a decline.”
However Faber says there is far more work that needs to be done. He stressed
that despite the fact that twenty five percent or a quarter of the national
annual budget is invested in education, its performance leaves much to be desired.
For this year’s budget the Minister says they will be applying for one
hundred and eighty two million dollars. About a hundred and seventy nine million
dollars will go towards salaries and services to keep children in school.
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“Text book programs, school children transportation, the tuition that
we pay for high school students, the subsidy program and other scholarships.
The remaining three million dollars or so if we get it is what the Ministry
has left to operate including to ensure that our schools deliver quality and
that they improve.”
It was the fifteenth CXC national award ceremony. Reporting for 7News, Jacqueline
Godwin.
The budget for education is one-hundred and eighty two million dollars.
The subjects that showed notable improvement were English A, English B and social
studies. Also on the upside, 67% of the entries received grade one to grade
three compared to 45.8% in 2008. 50.6% of the entries for English B were awarded
grade one to grade three compared to 34.6% in 2008 and 90.7% of the entries
for Social Studies received grade one to three compared to 73.4% in 2008.
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