And, finally, tonight, there's been some outcry recently because over 100 students face the prospect of having to leave the University of Belize because they cannot pay their registration fees.
Today, we asked Education Minister Faber if he can do, or will do anything:
Hon. Patrick Faber - Minister of Education "Everybody who has to pay a bill at the school, there comes a point where if you don't pay, they will do this in the semester. At UB and I want to be very clear, government gives a tremendous amount, I found it extremely important this morning when my colleagues said, 10 million dollars is the subvention to UB, to say no, it is now 11 million. 11 million dollars annually is the subvention to the University of Belize. So, we do the best that we can, now that does not mean we can pay everything for everybody and I know for a fact because when these things happen, when this kind of alarm happens naturally, the burden on my office becomes bigger and so I have quite often called to find out from my representative on the board what is going on, what kind of efforts are being made."Â
"I try not to interfere very much on what goes on, it is an autonomous university but every time UB is able to convince me, minister listen, the students are given the opportunity to pay, they are allowed to pay via a payment plan, you're allowed to do, it's the entire semester that you go through before you reach to this stage and it is normally when you're winding down the semester that the university cracks the whip and then people start saying, well I didn't get a fair run, I don't have the money and all of this. So, I don't want to seem unsympathetic because really, I know that education in general is expensive but really and truly I think the university tries it's best to accommodate students, the ministry does absolutely all that it can do, we bend backwards, sometimes we owe the university in the tunes of 100 of thousands if not millions of dollars for a short term basis while we ensure that we try to help students."
"So, while I sympathize with the students in that regard, calling on the government and saying Mr. Government why you no do more? Is really an unfair call and while we continue to try to do our best to help situations, that is sometimes simply something we can't do."
Jules Vasquez "So, all this to say, it's not a realistic expectation, you all are unable to help. If they reached this point, probably all best efforts have been exhausted."
Hon. Patrick Faber "You know these things have a way of working themselves out. I can bet you that when that happens, people will then find a way to get it done."
Today, the PUP issued a release saying, quote, "(the) Barrow Administration has neglected UB by keeping the subvention frozen while enrollment has doubled, causing students to take on a greater share of the costâ€Â¦.The PUP calls on theâ€Â¦Ministry of Education to intervene â€Â¦to ensure that students are not de-registered."
Email
Print