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From health to education: today Education Minister Patrick Faber today held an Education press conference to review and evaluate Belize's educational system – What has been accomplished and What still needs to done? In his speech at the Biltmore, Faber began with the major achievements in education.

Hon. Patrick Faber - Minister of Education

"In 2008 we had 4 key policy objectives. First was to start strong ensuring that every child starts school ready to learn and focus; focused on increasing access to pre-school education, focused on addressing the preventative health care needs of children. It focused on school feeding."

"The second of those policy objectives was to build stamina, ensuring that we get and keep young people in school for more years of learning by reducing barriers to access and retention of students in secondary school and what we did was providing that $300 subsidy to reduce cost to a barrier in accessing and help them stay in school. We levelled the playing field in terms of financing of secondary schools based on their total student enrolment while factoring the academic and socio-economic needs of such students; the new financing formula."

"Our third policy objective was to raise the bar focusing on improving student achievement and quality assurance. This was focused on fostering full competence in English, Math, Spanish and Physical and Social Sciences for all students. We subsidised the cost of the CXC examinations, CCSLC and CSEC to ensure that all students are able to take these exams at least in the core areas."

"The fourth of such policy objectives was to teach the teacher and we invested in teacher education and professional development. We provided financial incentives for teachers to acquire professional qualifications. In our second term in 2012, we pledge to continue that work that we started back in 2008."