Education

With the assistance of many generous supporters, the Rotary Club of Ambergris Caye collected enough resources to fund its annual ‘Back to School Supply Drive.’ Members of the club joined forces on Wednesday, August 21st, to fill 280 school bags with supplies. The backpacks will benefit students from selected educational institutions on the island. The program aims to raise awareness and encourage community involvement in campaigns designed to alleviate financial challenges for families in need on the island.

Two hundred fifty school bags containing supplies were distributed to a group of children in San Pedro Town on Sunday, August 18th. The initiative, dubbed 'Bak Dah Skul Give a Weh,' is a project by Coda Adams, co-owner of Braylon Realty Group. This is the third year that the school supply giveaway program has benefited island students with the assistance of the Community Policing Unit at the San Pedro Police Formation and San Pedro Women's Department.

The University of Belize takes this opportunity to update its students and all other stakeholders on the work it is doing to elevate all its service areas that impact students’ registration every semester. At the start of the registration period for the August semester, the university became aware that the servers that host the Xenegrade registration portal were giving students very slow access and dropped completely several times. Despite these challenges, over 4,500 students have now registered successfully. Nevertheless, some students are encountering a few challenges with their invoices, and with finding spaces in the classes they would like to take.

On Tuesday, July 25th, the village of Caye Caulker in Belize celebrated the official launch of its innovative Digital Connect Center. This center is a pioneering initiative and the first of its kind that will allow residents easy access to technology for everyday needs. The milestone was made possible through a collaborative partnership between the Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy, Logistics, E-Governance, the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Area Representative Honorable Andre Perez.

The Belize Education Upliftment Project (EUP) is a government-backed initiative to improve education in secondary schools. It covers student tuition, meals, uniforms, transportation, and educational devices and enhances the school's infrastructure and resources. On March 8th, Prime Minister John Briceño announced an expansion of the EUP. He mentioned that 12 new high schools would join the program for the 2024-2025 academic year, including the San Pedro High School (SPHS). Currently, the SPHS management is in discussions with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology (MoECST) to address the higher costs of resources and services in San Pedro Town compared to the mainland. SPHS supports the project but is seeking adjustments to ensure it can cover its operational expenses.

The Rotary Club of the Ambergris Caye has initiated a program to assist less fortunate students on the island. Their annual "Back to School Supply Drive" aims to identify students in need and provide them with school bags equipped with essential supplies such as exercise books, rulers, folders, pens, pencils, erasers, and geometry sets. The project, which started in 2021, is guided by Rotary International, focusing on supporting education and local children.

Graduation season, the time to celebrate students' accomplishments at the end of each academic year, has ended in San Pedro with the commencement ceremony for the island's only junior college. San Pedro Junior College (SPJC) hosted its highly anticipated graduation on Saturday, July 13th, starting at 4:30PM at the Angel Nuñez Auditorium in Ambergris Caye. Fifty-two students graduated this year with associate's degrees in various majors. The graduation's motto was "Recognizing attitude is everything in Business; what we obtain by achieving our goals is less valuable than what we become by achieving them through faith, justice, and diligent effort."

A graduation ceremony was held on Thursday, June 27th, for the Ambergris Caye Elementary School (ACES) graduating class of 2024 at the Sage Brush Church. The theme for the ceremony, 'A Million Dreams is All It Takes,' resonated with the aspirations and dreams of the students and the entire community.