7 News Belize

Top Teachers Get Thanks
posted (May 5, 2016)
While the Belize Women's Political Caucus wants to inspire and train young girls to be future political leaders, the Ministry of Education wants to encourage teachers to keep working hard in the classrooms. Today an awards ceremony was held to recognize all those outstanding teachers and school leaders across the country at all educational levels. There were 29 nominees overall and there was a special presentation at the Bliss Center to celebrate this achievement. We stopped by to find out more.

Jeanie Garbutt Franklin, Edu. Ofc., Teacher Edu. & Dev. Services
"Today we are recognizing those persons who have demonstrated excellence in the teaching profession. We are looking at two categories, teachers and school leaders. It has been a very collaborative process that we've been true to be able to say that these persons are persons we really want to recognize because they've stood out in education. As part of its mandate, the ministry of education is very concerned about the quality of teaching in our classrooms and for us this is an opportunity to showcase some of those good practices that have been happening in the classroom. We know that school leaders and teachers are critical to this process."

Yvonne Howell, Coord., Teacher Edu. & Dev. Service
"We always hear the saying that teaching is not a job, it is a vocation. We must love teaching, and as such, we know how difficult it is to be a teacher, to be a school leader, in fact to be in the education system on a whole. By awarding these teachers and school leaders, it will give them the recognition that their work is not overlooked or being hidden behind closed doors. We have presentation at the different levels. For example, we have invited preschool children or students, we have invited primary, secondary and even we have a little skit at the tertiary level. We try to incorporate participants at the different levels."

This initiative has been ongoing for 8 years. For nominations, those in the community send the names of the teachers and school leaders they want to nominate and those names go the Education District Offices and then they are sent to a National Committee for the final selection process.

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