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We asked the Minister, why does that failing system insist on demoralizing 12, 13 and 14 year olds - by telling them that they are the ones failing? Here's what he said:

Jules Vasquez
"However, you will agree that for a 12, 13 or 14 year-old, it thoroughly demoralizing to fail this exam that your entire education sylabus is based on. Why don't we just scrap the exam, stop fulling ourselves as adults, and stop demoralizing and penalizing for an education that has failed them?"

Hon. Patrick Faber - Minister of Education
"Well because, Jules, we don't believe that this is the purpose of the exams. You're right that it is demoralizing to students, but there are some serious indicators that come out with the scores of the PSE. And that helps us to make sure that we understand what what is really happening in our education system. These test scores are serious indicators of the quality of education that is being provided in our country. We need to face that reality, and we need to do what is necessary to be done in order to improve the quality."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir, I do not want to be glib or argumentative, but how about for an initial measure, we pay all the administrators, your chief education officer, your CEO - not yourself, you have a mandate - but all of them the percentage of their salary that is national mean score, which is about 58%. If we did that I bet you that the grades would go up."

Hon. Patrick Faber
"I don't think that they are doing anything wrong, Jules. I have -"

Jules Vasquez
"But somebody be, the kids are the ones who get the message that you all are doing something wrong."

Hon. Patrick Faber
"I agree with you but the entire education system is not based on the Ministry of Education alone, and that is the big point that we've been trying to make. It's everybody's business to fix what is wrong with the education. So, you're going to do the same kind of thing who are not doing their part, and the business community who are not doing their part, and the church who are not doing their part, of the whole equation to make sure that education is fixed. Everybody needs to do their part."

We also discussed that other burning issue for standard six finishers. Seven thousand children took the PSE, so where will they go to high school? Here's what he said:

Hon. Patrick Faber - Minister of Education
"There are sufficient spaces in this country for all 7,000 of those students. The problem that we've had is to make those connections, and again, we are relying on everybody to make sure that this can be possible. Maybe it's not possible in this year, but there are enough spaces. If you look, for instance, at Stann Creek and Toledo, last year, we saw - in Toledo, let's look at Toledo - 101% transfer, and every child who was in primary school went on to high school. If you look at the mere number of high schools that exists in this country, they number at 58. And if we take on average that they take in 100, although you will find that most of these schools take in well in excess of 100 students into their 1st form, despite the fact that there are some repeaters and so on. That accounts for 5,800 possible spaces on its own. If you look at the kinds of opportunities that can exists through the ITVET's, there are only 300 full-time trainees now, and the capacity of all ITVET's can go up to 1,200 or 1,300. Then, there are another 900 spaces. There is at least 1 adult program that caters to those who have dropped out, and who can even start high school equivalencies in all districts except Orange Walk; these can offer spaces again. Then, there are programs like the Magazine Road Program where of course there are spaces. The problem we've had is that we're not making the connection, as I've said before there are - for instance - more spaces in the Belize River Valley at rural high, but people will decide, 'I don't want my kids to go there. I prefer not to apply there. I want my kids to go to a Belize City high school. But I can assure you, Jules, if there is not 100% space for all of these people who finished the PSE, there is at least 85% to 90% space availability to look at it strictly as the number of spaces available for high school students in this country."