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And from liberal attitudes to sexual education, to a progressive gender program for schools. 

Yesterday the Prime Minister signed a 20 Million dollar loan agreement with the IDB for the second phase of the Education Quality Improvement Program,

The project is to build a STEAM Lab School in Belize, and also to improve thÃ￾µ quÃ￾°lÑ–tу Ã￾°nd gÃ￾µndÃ￾µr Ã￾µquÑ–tу Ã￾¾f Ã￾µduÑ￾Ã￾°tÑ–Ã￾¾n Ã￾°t thÃ￾µ Ñ€rÑ–mÃ￾°rу Ã￾°nd Ñ•Ã￾µÃ‘￾Ã￾¾ndÃ￾°rу lÃ￾µvÃ￾µlÑ•.

We were curious as to what extent gender equity is meant to be understood within EQUIP II. And today when we caught up with Chief Education Officer Dr Carol Babb, Jules Vasquez put the question to her:

Jules Vasquez
"Could we ask you about Equip II the agreement was signed yesterday with the Prime Minister signing with the IDB and what jumps out when one reads the release because we just got the release, it talks about equality and gender equity in schools now we know that gender many people take it as almost like a bad word, we know it is not but some people take that to indicate a certain agenda: A progressive agenda which is not necessarily in line with traditional Christian interpretation of man, woman relations. Explain to me this gendering of Belize's school."

Dr. Carol Babb - Chief Education Officer
"I really wouldn't want to get into that Equip II because I haven't read it properly, so I don't want to but I know that we want offer - all I can say, equal opportunities for everyone, we will not discriminate."

Jules Vasquez
"So then I just want to be clear, for example right now we're a Presbyterian school, most of the schools are, or a vast majority are church managed. How do we fit in, let's say we have a child who does not identify as boy, while he may have the physical attributes of a male, he feels like a girl. How do we handle that in terms of restrooms, in terms of classes, these are real issues."

Dr. Carol Babb
"Right but remember, these are grant aided schools Jules, so they are getting public funds, so they cannot discriminate and should not turn away any child. If they want to...regardless."

Jules Vasquez
"A Christian interpretation, the child has constitutional rights."

Dr. Carol Babb
"The child has constitutional rights and if they want to discriminate, then they should form their own private school but once you are getting public funds, you should not discriminate and when these matters come to our attention, we bring it to the attention of the managing authorities."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you foresee a future where as I have seen in developed countries, a school bathroom, you have gender neutral assignments."

Dr. Carol Babb
"I haven't seen it in Belize yet, that's new. I believe the time will come that will become an issue and then we will have to be prepared to respond to that, but so far we have not had any kind of issues like that where children are being discriminated or turned away because of whatever their choice is."

EQUIP II is funded by a 10 million US dollars loan from the IDB.