Late Scholarship Payments Strain Schools Again

It’s a familiar chorus at the start of every school term, schools sounding the alarm over late payments for tuition and fees. In many cases, those students are relying on government scholarships and grants that haven’t yet been released. And while the delays are often blamed on bureaucratic slowdowns, the impact on schools can be very real. Administrators say late payments can leave them scrambling just to cover basics like electricity, water, and day‑to‑day operations. So, the complaints start to pile up; first reaching Area Representatives and eventually making their way to the Ministry of Education. With concerns resurfacing this week, we asked Education Minister Francis Fonseca how his ministry plans to address the issue.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“Whenever we get a report of schools who have a shortfall or so, we work with them to try to address that. As you know we’ve, the government of Belize, the Ministry of Education has dramatically increased its budget for financial assistance to students over the past five years. So we’ve, we’re supporting students at all levels in an unprecedented way, and we’re going to continue to do that. As you might remember, we just recently approved an additional five million dollars, I think in the last house meeting for Ministry of Education. So whatever delays there are have to do with, perhaps the Christmas holidays and the break. But I can assure all of the schools that whatever outstanding payments are due those will be addressed during the month of January.”