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Back to School!
Where are the textbooks?  Tuesday, September 11th,
marked the first day of classes since being
postponed due to the threat of Hurricane Felix a week ago. Students
lined up, eager to begin their new year. In their backpacks were their
exercise books and nothing more, their textbooks were to be handed over
to them and their parents that very day. However, that did not happen.
The Government of Belize’s newest initiative was to provide free textbooks to all children in government run or government assisted schools. As was mentioned in our previous article New “Free” textbooks dated August 30th, 2007, Government would provide all textbooks and workbooks needed for the 2007-08 curriculum. Set to arrive, prior to the schools’ opening their doors, delays have been many and not far in between. Speaking via telephone with the new Education District Manager for Belize, Jahmor Lopez, The San Pedro Sun found out that the process, described as ‘tedious and time consuming’, has had a few hitches along the way. “Between Hurricane Dean, the flooding and then Felix, getting the textbooks processed has taken longer than initially anticipated,” he commented. As mentioned before, processing of the books includes stamping them with a number, the name of the school and student, for accountability purposes, prior to the books arriving in San Pedro Town, and the rest of the country. Aside from Mother Nature, the Department of Education has also had other problems, such as, space constraints. With containers filled up with books, space is needed and working out of an auditorium limits the amount of space available. “This is a new procedure. We are learning as we go by since this is all quite new,” commented Lopez. A barge company has been hired to deliver the text/workbooks to San Pedro. The barge is set to leave on Friday and school children are expected to have their books on Monday. Each child will receive five textbooks; one book for each subject plus a workbook for those subject areas which include them. According to officials, the workbooks are not expected to be returned, however the textbooks MUST be returned at the end of the school year. A system has been put in place where the teachers will collect the books and periodically access the inventory and condition of each book. Once students get their books, all parents will have to sign a contract which is a basic lease for the books – meaning that if your child loses or damages a book you, the parent, will have to pay for it. Schools under this program include private schools that are Government grant aided. Read More Eight
more Belizeans receive
Cuban scholarships Eight
Belizeans have been awarded scholarships to study in Cuba. They
are Roel Moralez, Melida Zabaneh, Deon Kelly, Deshawn Garbutt, Desiree
Armstrong, Kelvin Yacab, Jamie Hibberd and Indira Williams. They will
pursue Bachelor degrees in Physics, Economics, Electrical and Civil
Engineering, Natural Sciences and Special Education. The scholarship
package includes tuition, fees, room and board while the Government of
Belize will provide a monthly stipend towards living costs. The
recipients are responsible for their own travel expenses. The students
spent most of today in orientation sessions facilitated by officials
from the Ministry of Education and the Cuban embassy in preparation for
the school year which is set to start later this month. This latest
group joins more than one hundred and fifty Belizeans already studying
in Cuba. Read More
PUP Senator Tony
Chanona Resigns
 Reports
tonight say that Senator Anthony Chanona has written to the Prime
Minister informing him that he is resigning from the Senate. Chanona
was a PUP Senator, but left last Friday’s sitting because he could not
support the Electricity Amendment Bill. Critics say that the bill
strips the PUC of central powers and gives them to the Minister. It’s
worth noting that Chanona’s brother Al, sits on the PUC. Read
MoreTourism at a
standstill?
Awww, the
slow season is here and people are feeling the pain. September and
October are usually “dead” months on Ambergris Caye but the threats of
two back-to-back Category 5 Hurricanes, Dean and Felix, have certainly
not helped any. Dean and Felix did not directly hit Belize and as such
Ambergris Caye received hardly any damages from these sons of Mother
Nature.
In the advent of slow season, many businesses around the island close down for their yearly renovations in preparation for the peak season beginning in November. Now people ask, “How much more of this slow season can we take?” In an interview with Registrar of Hotel and Tourist Accommodation for the Belize Tourism Board Lloyd Enriquez, his offices do not have definitive statistics as to the difference in tourism arrivals from last year and whether or not the hurricane threats adversely affected the bit of tourism influx which Belize was experiencing. Directly from the threats, however, were the cancellations of port calls by the Carnival Cruise Line. These cancellations will resume on January 1st, 2008 – that totals eight calls that will not come through the Belize’s Tourism Village. Each cruise ship call, at maximum capacity, holds 3,500 passengers who will not enjoy what the country has to offer. According to Enriquez, calls placed to various businesses and hotels reflect not much of a decline in the influx of tourism in the country. “You have to realize that these threats came during the slow season. A time of the year where it is slow to begin with,” he stressed. His calls placed a five to ten percentile drop in hotel reservations countrywide. Definite stats can not be drawn up until the end period in September. Hotels in San Pedro have seen a decline on their reservations but many agree that as early as this weekend some will see a full house again. Slow season is here, Dean and Felix were here now San Pedranos push ahead, hoping that tourism reaches its peak once more. Read More NOTICES/LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
THOUGHT
OF THE DAY
The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time Abraham Lincoln |
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 www.grandcaribe.bz debbiewade@gmail.com
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