Literacy in Belize

From the perspective of formal education the adult literacy rate is often quoted as high as 76%, however the last comprehensive survey to be completed in Belize found that the functional literacy rate was approximately 40%.

Issues That Affect Literacy

Financial Issues
Although there is a public school system in Belize, there are still substantial costs involved in sending a child to primary school, and especially to high school. In Primary Schools the education itself is "free", however, parents are required to pay for compulsory uniforms, books and supplies, and annual registration fees. These rates increase substantially at the high school level. Often, families do not have the income to provide all their children with even a primary school education, let alone a more expensive high school education.

Women and Literacy
When parents are unable to afford to keep all their children in school, they will commonly withdraw the girls in the family first because they are not expected to be the breadwinners in the future. Because family sizes are often very large, women's lives are expected to be consumed by child rearing. Once a girl leaves school, she is more likely to focus on getting married and having children.

Disability and Literacy
Handicapped or disabled children are often never even enrolled in school, due to the public school system's lack of special education facilities and educators There are no primary schools or high schools in all of Belize for those with physical or learning disabilities.

The Education System
Belize reports a high enrollment rate at primary school level (Girls 95.9, Boys 94.6) suggesting a significant achievement. However there are a number of challenges related to quality and disparity that need to be addressed. For example the system shows a high repetition rate of 8.6%, a high dropout rate of 0.8% and, low achievement in the standardized examinations (National average below 60% in the PSE in 2006). Based on the data collected by the Ministry of Education on literacy rates, the large disparity found between basic literacy and functional literacy is directly reflective of the poor performance of the public education system. It has been determined that one of the main causes are that the Educators that are entrusted with our children’s future are not properly trained in the basic areas English, Math and the Sciences.

Immigration and Language Barriers
Many residents of Belize are not native Belizeans, but are immigrants from surrounding Central American countries such as Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras where English is not the national language. Regardless of immigration status, most children in Belize, native or not, speak a language other than English at home: usually Spanish, Creole or one of several Mayan dialects. Although English is the national language of Belize in most homes English is indeed a second language. This appears to be a significant contributor to Belize's high illiteracy rates.