And that's why the first ever Teaching Services Commission was established. This team is commissioned to champion the warapy forward for an improved education system. Minister of Education, Patrick Faber addressed the issue of corporal punishment in schools and the signing of the first two memoranda of understanding for the amalgamation of four schools into two. Andrea Polanco has more in this report:…

Andrea Polanco Reporting
Today the first ever Teaching Service Commission was appointed.

A team, that according to Minister of Education, Patrick Faber, is needed to improve the quality of education delivered in our schools:

Patrick Faber: Minister of Education
"With the establishment of the teaching service commission it is considered that much benefit would be derived to this system of education in Belize and more importantly the quality of education delivered. With the broad composition of the teaching commission to administer the regulations pertaining to the teaching services, efficiency, transparency and increase trust and confidence in the management of the system would be derived to the benefit of all concerned. Certainly the establishment of the teaching service commission seeks to safeguard the interest of all stakeholders by raising the status of teachers and simultaneous increasing public confidence in the teaching services of this country. In this regard the teaching service commission shall ensure that our children benefit from qualify teachers and furthermore that the rules and regulations governing the terms and conditions of employment of teachers are applied fairly and squarely to all teachers free from political, religious or other influence. Managements will be able to hold teachers accountable and in turn managements will be able to hold accountable so that teachers will be treated fairly without fair of political, religious or other influence. Parents and students will thus benefit from a better quality of education from a qualified accountable and fairly teaching force ultimately this will contribute to the professionalization of the teaching service."

It has been a long standing problem in the classroom- corporal punishment. But today Minister Faber said that the Education and Training Act of 2010 provided for the removal of corporal punishment as a means of discipline in schools- and today a critical decision was made:

Patrick Faber: Minister of Education
"After dialoguing with the Belize National Teacher's Union and listening to their concerns we decided to suspend that provision for a period of time to allow for a task force on alternative student discipline approaches to be put together and that recommendations for policies and practices for implementation that would provide for the creating of safe discipline supportive schools in the context of the removal of corporal punishment from our schools. We are happy to report that having receive that report with recommendations from the task we have agree on a way forward for the creation of safe, discipline, supportive schools in the context for the removal of corporal punishment as a means of discipline for our schools."

And in continuing to improve the quality of education, four primary schools in the south will be amalgamated into 2.

Patrick Faber: Minister of Education
"Some time ago I stated our goal to pursue the amalgamation of small schools so that we could be more efficient and effective in the use of our resources as it not only saves us money which we can invest in other areas but because it makes educational sense. It leads to improvement in the quality of education experience by our children. Last year we drafted a school amalgamation policy and we dialogue with two managing authorities to achieve the amalgamation of these 4 schools to create two schools. We are please then to be signing a MOU with Methodist management of Hope Creek Methodist and Hope Creek government under the Methodist management. We are also pleased to be signing a MOU with the Anglican management for the amalgamation of La Democracia and St. Agnes Anglican of Mahogany Heights under the Anglican management."

To give full authority to the Teaching Services Commission, the next step is to amend sections of the rules in the Education and Training Act that was passed last year. The Ministry of Education said that while amendments have been completed they're hoping to sign them into effect as soon as possible.