BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – Education is a powerful driver of development, the foundation for a country’s future, and one of the best ways to reduce poverty and inequalities and improve health, peace, and stability.
Belize’s vision is that its education system should be inclusive, accessible, high-quality, technologically driven, and capable of fostering the development of productive citizens. In recent years, the country has invested significantly in this area to achieve this vision.
Yet, a pressing need remains to understand better whether allocated funds have been spent efficiently and whether citizens are getting value for money in the sector. This was the purpose of the Public Expenditure Review conducted by the World Bank at the request of the government of Belize.
The Belize Public Expenditure Review (PER) was launched on February 29. The Report looks at key sectors of public spending in Belize: public sector employment, public investments, climate change, education, health expenditures, and overall fiscal management.
The Review presents essential findings. Belize’s spending on education is among the highest in the region, accounting for 20.4 percent of the country’s total public expenditure in 2019, about five percentage points higher than other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, excluding high-income countries.
However, quality and access to education remain a challenge. Projections using 2010 census data indicate that primary and secondary school enrollment rates have declined over the last decade, even before COVID-19. While new census data is needed to understand more current insights, many students are expected to repeat or drop out before graduating.
Those who remain in school need to achieve satisfactory performance levels. During 2018–2019, almost one-third of primary school examination takers averaged ‘inadequate’ across four subjects: English, Mathematics, Social Science, and Science.
Worryingly, this is an increase from 22 percent in the 2013-14. In the same period, the percentage of trained teachers rose significantly at all levels: in preschool, from 24.4 percent to 57.8 percent; in primary schools, from 56.4 percent to 86 percent; and in secondary schools, from 27 percent to 69.5 percent, with potential implications of increases in salary expenditures.
The Review highlighted that Belize’s education sector could benefit from increased accountability. The industry minimally measures its schools’ performance, and the results are private. This leaves teachers, students, parents, and decision-makers in the dark about performance. Moreover, support tailored to weak-performing schools appears to be lacking, and there are no consequences for persistently failing schools.
There is also a need to measure students’ learning in Belize. The only national assessment available was the Primary School Examination administered in the last primary grade, which has been stopped since the 2019-2020 school year. Since this examination is Belize-specific, it cannot be compared with other countries.
The Review further noted that certain schools have high repetition rates to manage low-performing students. However, research shows that students who have to repeat grades are more likely to drop out of school than other students.
Repetition is a costly and marginally effective policy. It is estimated that in 2019, 4.5 percent of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology’s total budget was spent on student school repetition.
Overall, the Review finds that Belize’s high public sector wage bill significantly limits its fiscal space. As of 2022, the public sector wage bill accounted for 41 percent of total public spending, with the education sector accounting for almost half of that bill: 22.5 percent.
What Can Be Done?
The new competency-based National Curriculum Framework, launched in July 2022 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology with a focus on depth and quality of learning and teaching, is an essential step toward addressing many of the issues raised by the Review. Its implementation will take sustained, well-coordinated efforts on multiple fronts over a significant period, as our experience has demonstrated in other countries.
The Public Expenditure Review shares several recommendations to complement these efforts and support the larger transition of the education sector in Belize.
These include:
Promoting a culture of accountability with a focus on quality and continuous improvement. Publicizing performance measures, empowering parents and communities with information, and engaging champions from the education sector, society, local community, and the church.
Ensure assessments are updated in line with the new competency-based curriculum and consider participation in regional or international assessments so that Belize can compare itself with other countries. Conduct assessments earlier so that the results can be used to help lagging students early in their education.
We are establishing policies for supporting and managing weaker-performing schools, updating teacher management policies in line with the competency-based curriculum, and analyzing the relationship between teacher qualifications, training, and performance.
Implementing best practices, such as tutoring, module-specific repetition, and piloting initiatives, to move away from repetition and more effectively support lagging students.
Leveraging the power of analysis: Monitoring and evaluation for timely assessment of how well programs and initiatives work. Use the results to inform course correction in a timely manner and learn from the lessons generated both inside and outside of Belize.
When writing this blog, a phrase came to mind: “Prepare a child for the road, not the road for the child.” This phrase holds tremendous truth. We live in an uncertain world, faced with catastrophic weather events, pandemics, conflicts, and economic downturns.
While we cannot protect our children from all aspects of this unstable world, we can equip them with the proper knowledge and skills to navigate such uncertainty.
Having shared the review results last week in Belize, we are ready to work with the country’s leadership to improve education outcomes. We also stand with students, teachers, and community leaders who must be at the forefront of these efforts.
The journey might not be easy, but every step could be worth it, especially when we consider the end result: a child well prepared for the road ahead and a country well prepared for the future.
*Lilia Burunciuc is the World Bank Country Director for the Caribbean.
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