Hi!
My husband and I are considering relocating to Caye Caulker from the U.S. We are wondering if there is an independent school in the area? If not, we were wondering if there might be any interest in us opening a small school or homeschool group? I am a certified teacher and we have 2 daughters that we would be teaching. Just curious. It is something we have been considering for some time.

Betsy

There is a primary school here on the island and the only one too besides 2 kindergarten school..

So there is no school for children who are 10/12 and up?

Betsy I could be wrong but I think when a child reaches High School age they further their education in Belize City. Maybe they go to San Pedro to finish up. I will look into it for you if no one responds to your post in the next day or two.

They generally go to San Pedro HS.

The best Education for life, children will get to the largest extent outside from schools.

There is a high school opening up here, not the one that tried to open , the Church One that was built back by the airport, and I dont have all the particulars just was told about it by one of the women that will be teaching at it, it will be a private school which means most the kids here wont be able to afford it, yet its still a great thing. Opening up a school is very difficult I hear..the new school buiding sits empty, it was going to be free for about 10 to 15 kids here, info I got was the Government would not allow the Church to use its own teachers etc etc.I do believe its still a work in progress.

all kids that graduate from the primary school here either goes to San Pedro or to Belize City for high school.

I dont believe all kids that graduate from primary school go on to ANY school. I think the water taxi does give them a discount so they pay either $10 or $15 BZE RT each, which is prohibitive to alot of families, especially families with 2 or 3 children close in age, $40 a day!!!!! Some families are lucky and get sponsors, and although I do not have updated numbers I am sure some are not so lucky....

Hi Cooper!
All that you are saying is very interesting. I always wondered about this situation, since I was aware that the older kids had to commute to another island/city to further their education.

Its always made me mad with a country with such a high drug, hiv problem...I have my venues and spend alot of hours raising money for this and that, the education problem is just...oh well I guess I will just say it and get ready for the feed back..A STUPID GOVERNMENT.... Every educated child will help with the healthy progression of this beautiful country..... every educated child is less apt to get aids, to get pregnant, more apt to bring revenue to the country...

Hi! Betsy, I'm a single mother of 2 girls in school age, and they travel everyday to San Pedro Island for High School, and the next one to Belize City. 1 in High School and the next one in college. Caye Caulker Water Taxi give students a special rate to go either way San Pedro or Belize City. Students rate to San
Pedro is $10.00Bze round trip, and to Belize City is $15/00Bze., plus to that you have to add lunch money too and passage from water taxi terminal to the school.
It's really expensive education here, and as a mother of 2 student i take this opportunity to thanks CAYE CAULKER WATER TAXI ASSOCIATION to give us this special rates for our children and their education, even knowing that there's many other children and parents that cannot afford to send their kids to farther education.Once again THANK YOU!!CAYE CAULKER WATER TAXI ASSOCIATION.

I know running the water taxis here is very expensive, with the price of gas , upkeep of the boats, salery.etc. High season when the boats are always full is relatively short, yet they maintain the same schedule year round, in Sept , Oct I have been on the boats with only a handfull of people, I was by no means saying anything bad about the water taxi association...But dont you think the Government could subsidize the families that cant afford 10 or 15 dollars???? Do they not get it or what????

I know of one person who is actively homeschooling her two children but don't know if she would be interested or not. Several years ago, when my daughter was younger there were several parents who were interesting in homeschooling but it seemed too difficult/expensive to set up at the time for the few of us interested, as non of us were able teach. I think if something was started there may be some others who would be happy for the alternative.
The current public school goes to grade 8, called standard 6 here, and the students leave the island for further schooling. There is an effort underway to start a new high school this September that is looking like it may actually happen. If I understood the tuition correctly it is not cost prohibitive especially when considering that the cost of water taxi would be eliminated. Classes at this school are inteneded to be small in size, 10 to 15 per class. For more information you may contact me at earmstrong@btl.net

CayeBoard, This is great news. I am very interested and will contact you. Also, I will be there in June so that we can discuss raising money for other things that will benefit the school.

Unfortunately, if the government subsidized the water taxi they would have to subsidize all of the kids from the villages on the mainland who have to pay room and board to be able to attend high school.

Sorry,
I was super busy for a few days. Thanks for all the discussion. If we were to come it would likely be with 2 girls about 10-12 or 11-13 in tow. We would probably teach them ourselves, but since we are capable of teaching others, (thats what we do) these replies have been very helpful.. It was also something we really needed to know in the decision making process of coming to Belize. Our youngest daughter is bipolar, and part of the reason we are looking to leave the US. She needs a slower, calmer, and more non traditional lifestyle. I don't think we would consider sending her to San Pedro on a regualr basis, it would just be too unpredictable for us. Thanks again to everyone who has replied.

We have homeschooled here in Belize for many years. Understand that curriculum is very hard to get here. Plan on bringing all you need from the US and make sure you have ways to get new curriculum brought/shipped to you. Just a suggestion.

I had imagined that homeschooling had been going on for quite sometime in Belize. If we were to do this we would bring quite a lot of things with us. We are also lucky enough to have parents (one of whom is also a teacher) who would be able to send us/bring us further materials. I think that educationally we are feeling okay about coming to Belize. It may be that pesky problem of employment that slows us down. Thanks

Actually there is very little homeschooling going on here. Also when you come, if you homeschool your children you will not get the reduction in monthly visa fee renewal, which you get if your children are enrolled in a public or private school. With our 3 kids that was an additional 75 Bze dollars for the first 6 months/month and 150Bze for the next 6 months/month.

If we come, we would most likely enroll one daughter(the older one) in school there. The youngest has mental health issues and we would just have to suck up the lost fees. She is struggling mightily in school here. I don't think we could send her to school even if we wanted to. She is kind of unpredictable. Thanks for your reply. I was not aware of that particular issue. There are many things like that that I need to learn more about. This is the start of a long process for us as we consider coming to Belize. I decided to start with education and go from there. Thanks again

Betsy: I received your email today, thank you.
I am unable to respond at the moment so have forwarded your email to the director of the new high school. However your email address was not included in your letter. If you wish to contact the director her email address is heidi_curry@yahoo.com

Wouldn't the e-mail adress be in the e-mail? Just asking.

One would think so, however I wouldn't have made this post if it had been included. The email I received was a reply through this message board so the senders email address was not disclosed.

There be the confusion. Message board messages are PM's (private messages), e-mails are e-mails.

I was wondering if you made the move? My husband and I are looking to move to Belize and are also teachers 8-12th grade in Texas.

Would either of you be a science teacher specializing in Marine Biology who speaks Spanish and can learn basic Creole?
My E mail is keycocker1@yahoo.com

You are too funny, Dane! Btw, Dane is spearheading a project to open the first high school on Caye Caulker this coming September 2008. Building construction is well under way...

You are a hero, Dane!

Cheers,
Wendy

While vacationing on C C in April we spoke with a nice young man who worked at the Iguana Reef who told us that yes, you have to take the water taxi and it is $5 each way per child. Knowing that for the most part the people on the Island appear to be poor, we were wondering how in the world these families could afford such a luxury of $10 per day per child. Do you know of the organization that you can get in touch with that helps sponsor children so we could make a donation? It seems so had that a poverty cycle will not be broken if there is not some type of help. What a waste of minds!