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Dr. Cynthia Thompson who chaired the session said that much of the research explores vital, under-examined areas of the education sector:

Dr. Cynthia Thompson - Assistant Provost, Ph. D. Education Policy, Planning & Analysis, UB
"Over the past 2 decades, a growing number of Belizeans have pursued doctoral studies abroad, or through special programs designed to allow more Belizeans to pursue the larger portion of their studies, such as the OSU Program. As a result, there is a growing number of dissertations on topics relevant to education in Belize. While we hear of the accomplishments of these individuals who have successfully completed, we seldom hear of the details of the research, and the findings of those dissertation studies. Today, however, we have 13 individuals presenting results from dissertations conducted on educational topics in Belize. Many of the areas that are going to be touched on today are hot-button topics, and they are topics that have been debated for several decades here in Belize, especially those relating to the disparities in student performance in school, especially the urban-rural divide. Some of the topics have been baffling educators for a long time, so it is interesting to hear of the results."

Hon. Patrick Faber
"All the topics that the presenters are presenting today are on educational issues, and so it presents for us in the Education Ministry, another resource for data driven planning. As you know, in the Ministry of Education, we are now trying to focus on doing proper planning, and then following according to those plans to execute for a better education system. So this falls perfectly in line with what we are trying to do."

Celebrated Pianist In Belize

And while they are Doctors of Education, A master of the piano is in Belize tonight.

International award winning pianist and composer - Seth Montfort- is in Belize getting ready to perform a string of concerts scheduled over this Mother's Day weekend.

As the founder of the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra - Montfort has produced 470 full orchestral concerts.

Today 7news caught up with the seasoned pianist who told us about his inspired work.

Seth Montfort - Pianist
"Well, I play the piano, and I run an orchestra in San Francisco. I live in Guatemala - sort of - and I compose. I play all the standard classical works, but I also play music written in the jungle in Caribbean and Latin dances, and jazz by English composers, who are classical but jazz. And I play complete works of Gershwin, so my repertoire is quite different from regular pianists. So, it's all sort of classical works, but those that aren't typical. I made my debut with the Denver Symphony when I was 16. I saw a piano concerto, and I wanted to do that myself. I won a contest, and I played for 1000 people, the Verve Love Concerto for Left Hand, which is inspired by jazz. After Gershwin took Verve to Harlem, and that sort of set the tone on the type of works I play, although I'm a Chopin specialist, and I made finals in the New York Chopin competitions, both of them, and I've played all across the United States, but mostly in San Francisco, because I have an orchestra. I've played lots of concertos with full orchestras, but recently, I wanted to be a naturalist in the jungle. Recently, 6 years ago, I started playing in Latin America, and I performed in Mexico, and in a tree house in Costa Rica. And I go back to all these places every year now. There's a giant tree house in Costa Rica. I play lots of concerts there with monkeys. I play my tropical music. I enjoy doing that very much."

You can catch the concert on Thursday at 7pm at the Radisson, On Friday there will be a concert in Belmopan at the George Price Center and on Saturday night at the San Ignacio Hotel.

And if you miss tomorrow's show in Belize City, you can catch it again on Sunday evening - this time at the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts. The concerts also feature the National Youth Orchestra and Choir.