Carib Scope

分类： education

  • FLASH : 2026-2027 School Calendar (official)

    FLASH : 2026-2027 School Calendar (official)

    Haiti’s national education authorities have officially published the full academic calendar for the 2026-2027 school year, outlining structured learning hour requirements, key holiday breaks, assessment windows, official exam schedules, and a full list of critical administrative deadlines for schools, educators, and students across the country. Released publicly on September 3, 2026, the official framework establishes clear guidelines for all education levels, designed to bring consistency to academic operations for the coming year.

    Across all tiers of Haiti’s education system, the upcoming school year will total 194 instructional school days, with tailored learning hour allocations matched to each level’s educational requirements. Preschool programs are scheduled to deliver 864 total hours of structured learning, while the first and second cycles of fundamental education will see 920 instructional hours. For secondary education institutions, the calendar sets a 1,164-hour learning requirement for the academic year.

    The 2026-2027 school year will officially kick off on September 7, 2026, marking the first day of classes for students across the nation. The calendar maps out all national public holidays aligned with Haiti’s cultural and historical milestones: November 2 will be observed as All Souls’ Day, November 18 marks the Battle of Vertières, January 1, 2027 is Haiti’s Independence Day, Carnival celebrations will take place on February 8 and 9 2027, a two-day Easter break is scheduled for March 25 and 26 2027, May 17 is designated Teachers’ Day (also called Educators’ Day), May 18 is observed as both Flag Day and University Day, and May 27 2027 will mark the religious holiday of Corpus Christi.

    Four formal assessment periods are scheduled throughout the academic year. The first cycle of assessments will run from November 9 to 13 2026, followed by a second assessment window from January 25 to 29 2027. Third assessments are scheduled for May 12 to 16 2027, with the final assessment period and all official end-of-year exams taking place between May 31 and July 1 2027.

    The winter holiday break will begin on December 21 2026, the last day of classes before the new year, with students returning to classrooms on January 4 2027. A shorter mid-semester break follows in early February, with classes concluding for the break on February 5 2027.

    For official end-of-year state exams, the calendar splits scheduling across different academic programs. Exams for 9th AF, Family Education Center programs, Teacher Training College, and Technical and Vocational Training tracks will be held from June 14 to 17 2027. Exams for NS4 levels and the Permanent Baccalaureate will run from June 28 to July 1 2027, with the first session of the December 2026 Permanent Baccalaureate exam open for registration between October 27 and November 17 2026.

    In addition to academic milestones, the official calendar outlines dozens of critical administrative deadlines for education departments, private schools, and staff. Leading up to the start of the school year, submission and entry of final decision lists for the 2025-2026 academic year will be accepted from August 3 to September 4 2026. The first of four scheduled teacher training sessions, hosted by the Directorate of Training and Professional Development (DFP), will run from August 23 to September 4 2026. Additional DFP training sessions are scheduled for December 28 to 31 2026, and February 16 to 18 2027.

    For the Directorate for Support to Private and Partnership Education (DAEPP), schools must submit school council information online between September 1 and 30 2026, and all applications for new operating permits must be submitted by October 30 2026. The deadline for applications to open entirely new schools is set for March 31 2027. The National Bureau of State Examinations (BUNEXE) will accept 2027 state exam registration forms from October 6 to December 29 2026. The Directorate of Planning and External Cooperation (DPCE) requires all schools to complete 2026-2027 school census forms online between January 11 and February 4 2027. Submission of class lists for the 2026-2027 academic year, alongside 2027 state exam registration forms, is open from August 14 to December 18 2026.

    The full official 2026-2027 school calendar is available for public download in PDF format via HaitiLibre’s official document portal.

  • ‘Dilapidated’ school

    ‘Dilapidated’ school

    As the new academic term approaches for Marabella North Secondary School, the campus’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) has issued an urgent public appeal, highlighting the institution’s severely dilapidated infrastructure that endangers student safety and undermines effective learning. With the school set to welcome more than 600 students and 70 staff members when classes resume on Monday, PTA leaders are calling on Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Education to step in with immediate funding and repairs, after years of unaddressed complaints.

    Marlon Jaikaran, the PTA’s vice president and a former student of the school, described touring the campus as a disheartening experience. “When children come to school to learn, they deserve a space that is safe, comfortable, and clean. Right now, that basic standard is not being met in these classrooms, which are entirely unfit for teaching ahead of the new term,” Jaikaran explained.

    PTA members have cataloged a long list of critical defects across the entire campus. Rusted seating and broken stair railings are pervasive, while many classrooms lack complete sets of chairs, tables, and window fixtures. Missing windows and openings have allowed feral cats to enter and leave waste in learning spaces, and the campus also struggles with a large-scale pigeon infestation. The roof, external stairways, and indoor ceiling panels are all in advanced disrepair, with widespread rot evident in overhead structures. Multiple student restrooms are non-functional, and the school lacks fully operational fire safety equipment: no working fire extinguishers or pressurized water hoses are on hand to respond to emergencies. Overgrown, untrimmed grass across the grounds also adds to the unkempt conditions.

    The poor state of the campus has already disrupted extracurricular opportunities for students: the school was forced to withdraw from the national secondary school football competition this year because the overgrown, unmaintained playing field cannot be used for training. The school’s main academic block, a three-story building that serves most of the student body, holds more than 20 classrooms, with separate Sixth Form accommodations for upper and lower-year students in a second, equally neglected building.

    Jaikaran emphasized that the PTA has no plans to cancel the start of the term, but stressed that urgent assistance is needed ahead of September 7, the official opening date. To address the most pressing issues, PTA volunteers including Jaikaran, PTA president Tracey Turner-Alleyne, and trustee Lianne Ayres have been working around the clock since last week to repaint high-traffic areas of the campus, with half of the planned volunteer work completed to date. “We are doing everything we can to get the school ready for students, but there are major challenges we cannot solve on our own,” Jaikaran said.

    The crisis at Marabella North Secondary is not a new development: PTA leaders and the school’s principal have submitted repeated requests for support to the Ministry of Education over multiple years, and have rarely received formal responses. Additional requests were submitted earlier this year, both during and at the conclusion of the previous academic term. While minor repair work was recently completed on the school’s science block, Jaikaran noted that this small intervention does nothing to resolve the campus’s widespread infrastructure problems. Although the ministry has cited limited funding as a barrier to large-scale repairs, Jaikaran said immediate action remains non-negotiable.

    “We are asking the government and the ministry to extend a helping hand. The PTA cannot fix this alone,” he explained. “We have organized fundraisers, we have asked parents for personal donations, we have done everything we can to keep Marabella North operating at an acceptable standard. We cannot do more.”

    To date, the PTA has contributed $2,500 of its own funds to repair work, in addition to securing donated paint from corporate sponsor Sherwin-Williams. Turner-Alleyne acknowledged that it is unfair for parent volunteers to cover the cost of critical infrastructure repairs that should be the responsibility of the education ministry, but said the group has no other choice when students’ learning environments are at stake.

    “What else can we do? We need to make sure our children have a clean, supportive space to learn, and we will go to any length to make that happen,” Turner-Alleyne said. “If that means we have to dip into our own pockets, that is what we will do — that is what we have been doing all along.”

    Turner-Alleyne added that while the school principal has coordinated with ministry officials who have visited the campus, dozens of critical issues remain unaddressed. She issued a direct personal appeal to Education Minister Dr. Michael Dowlath to visit the campus in person to see the conditions firsthand. “Please come walk through Marabella North, come see the state of our school, come look at our classrooms. We have entire classrooms with no tables or chairs at all,” she said. “Our school motto is ‘Our Best Always,’ and our children deserve our best, always. They deserve to learn in a safe, functional facility.”

    Local media outlet The Reach reached out to Minister Dowlath for comment on the PTA’s appeal this week, but had not received a response as of press time.

  • Lim A Po: Olie-ontwikkeling vraagt om andere manier van denken

    Lim A Po: Olie-ontwikkeling vraagt om andere manier van denken

    As Suriname prepares for major new offshore oil and gas development, a leading higher education leader is challenging the country’s graduating professionals to reframe their relationship to national development, urging a break from outdated postcolonial mindsets to embrace a modern, globally focused vision centered on inclusion, equality and sustainability. The call came from Hans Lim A Po, rector of the FHR Institute for Higher Education, during the institution’s 2026 Grand Graduation ceremony held at Paramaribo’s Royal Torarica Ballroom, an event that also marked a historic milestone for legal education in the South American nation.

    This graduation cycle saw FHR produce its first-ever cohort of Master of Business Law graduates, a program run in partnership with the Netherlands’ Maastricht University. Sixteen students successfully completed the degree, a step that institute leaders describe as a major leap forward for advanced legal education across Suriname. The 2026 ceremony carried the central theme: “Moving into the Future: How Education Contributes to Global Citizenship.”

    Lim A Po acknowledged that national expectations for the coming oil and gas sector are overwhelmingly focused on the transformative economic benefits the industry could bring to Suriname, a framing he calls understandable. But he also noted a growing national consensus that the nascent sector carries severe environmental, social and governance risks that will require deliberate, skilled management from the country’s political and civic leaders. Against this backdrop, he argued, the nation’s newly minted highly educated professionals carry a unique responsibility to shape the sector’s trajectory for the public good.

    A core part of that responsibility, Lim A Po told graduates, requires leaving behind lingering postcolonial thinking patterns that have fostered social dependency, weak norms of self-governance and an extractive economic culture that prioritizes short-term resource extraction over long-term inclusive prosperity. In place of these outdated frameworks, he urged graduates to adopt a modern, global outlook rooted in the core values of inclusion, equality and sustainability.

    Lim A Po grounded his message in the broader framework of global citizenship, drawing on the work of American philosopher Martha Nussbaum, who has argued that modern higher education must prepare students not only for participation in their national or local communities, but also for engagement in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent global society. Contrary to common framing, Lim A Po emphasized that national citizenship and global citizenship are not mutually exclusive concepts. Instead, he described them as mutually reinforcing frameworks: national citizenship provides the formal legal foundation for action, while global citizenship offers a broader ethical direction to guide that action.

    The central challenge for modern citizens, he argued, is to “think globally, act locally”: major global challenges around justice, climate change, sustainability and planetary health ultimately must be translated into concrete local and national policy and personal choices within every individual’s own community. This is no simple task: local action can often feel too limited to meaningfully move the needle on large-scale global problems, while even small local decisions can carry ripple effects that extend far beyond national borders.

    Beyond environmental and economic sustainability, Lim A Po noted that a global citizenship framework also creates pathways to overcome what he called the “politics of difference,” the deep social divisions that run along ethnic, racial, religious and other identity lines in many societies. A global mindset, he explained, requires openness to diverse ideas and perspectives, and prioritizes values such as empathy, respect for difference and cross-border collaboration. He also issued a warning, however: global citizenship cannot be just a performative posture adopted to earn external recognition. It must grow from deeply held personal conviction and a genuine willingness to take responsibility for collective outcomes.

    Lim A Po also addressed the rising tide of youth-led activism across the globe, noting that since the start of the 21st century, Generation Z in particular has organized peaceful mass movements to speak out against socioeconomic inequality, nepotism and systemic corruption. While established institutional actors often frame these movements as a threat to existing social norms, Lim A Po argued that youth activism is better understood as a natural response to institutional and governance failures to uphold shared global values. This, he said, creates a clear mandate for universities and other higher education institutions: global citizenship must be integrated into core academic curricula, so that students gain not only technical professional knowledge, but also learn to think critically about their own choices, their leadership and their broader social responsibility.

    Closing his address to the new graduates, Lim A Po quoted Thomas Paine’s 1792 declaration: “My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” He expressed his hope that this principle would serve as a guiding ethos for the FHR’s newest cohort of alumni as they step into leadership roles across Suriname and beyond.

  • Severe Teacher Shortage Threatens More Tomorrow Primary School

    Severe Teacher Shortage Threatens More Tomorrow Primary School

    As the 2026 academic year enters just its third day, a small rural primary school in Belize’s Cayo District is grappling with an escalating staffing crisis that has left its long-term future hanging in the balance. More Tomorrow Primary School, which serves students from early infancy education through to Standard Six, currently operates with just two fully active educators for more than 30 enrolled children – a gap that has left parents and community members bracing for the possibility of permanent closure.

    The crisis is far from sudden: the school has struggled with persistent staffing shortages for years, despite repeated promises of government intervention. Today, one of the school’s only two teachers is Principal Dominina Pop, who is already scheduled to retire next year. The second, Elizabeth Tush, voluntarily relocated from the capital city of Belmopan to prevent the school from grinding to a halt this term. Tush, who has stepped in to keep classes running, says she chose to stay because of the clear unmet need she saw among the student body, particularly in foundational literacy and writing skills.

    With only two staff members, the school’s 30+ students have been condensed into three grouped grade levels: lower, middle, and upper. Tush currently oversees three separate grade groups, while Pop manages the remaining two – an unmanageable workload that makes personalized, effective instruction nearly impossible to deliver. Tush shared that even with both educators working to their absolute limits, adapting lessons to meet the diverse learning needs across multiple age groups remains a monumental, often unachievable challenge.

    For local families, the potential closure of More Tomorrow Primary is more than an inconvenience – it is an existential threat to their children’s access to affordable, accessible education. Many households in the village lack the financial resources to send their children to alternative schools further afield. Parent Jose Giron, whose own children all attend the local school, emphasized that the community relies on the campus to keep education within reach for local working families. “All my children study right here, and that’s a great opportunity for the children because we can see them go to school and come back, and they can come eat and get a little rest in the break time,” Giron explained, noting that families have already invested in school uniforms and fees for the new term, with no contingency for a sudden closure.

    After circulating rumors that the Ministry of Education planned to shutter the school permanently, top education officials have pushed back to clarify the government’s position. Education Minister Francis Fonseca confirmed that no final decision to close More Tomorrow Primary has been made, and that ministry officials will convene with parents, educators, and community stakeholders tomorrow to explore sustainable solutions to put the school on stable footing.

    Minister Fonseca acknowledged the deep structural challenges that have left the school chronically understaffed, noting that few educators are willing to take up posts at the rural campus. “Nobody wants to go to teach there. They say the conditions are too harsh,” he said, adding that the ministry has already tested multiple interventions to address the gap, including last year’s accommodations to recruit a mother-daughter teaching pair that ultimately left the post out of frustration. The ministry has floated one potential alternative: providing transportation to move students to other nearby schools, but that proposal remains under discussion with the community.

    Local leaders say the core barrier to attracting and retaining teachers is the lack of on-community housing, paired with rising costs for transportation, rent, and basic living expenses. Compounding the issue, many teachers assigned to rural posts are also forced to cover the cost of classroom supplies out of their own pockets, making low-resource rural campuses even less appealing. Difficult local infrastructure also adds to the challenges: during periods of bad weather, the village’s roads regularly flood, cutting off access for anyone not living in the community.

    Village Chairman Michael Myvette says the village council is fully prepared to support efforts to keep the school open, and community members have united around a single policy ask: the government should fund purpose-built teacher housing within the village. Having educators live on-site would not only resolve the flood-related access issues but also create the stable conditions needed to recruit teachers who are willing to put down roots and support the school long-term.

    As the community waits for tomorrow’s meeting with education officials, parents and staff remain urgent in their call for intervention to save the only local primary school that serves More Tomorrow Village’s children.

  • Education Minister Says Struggle to Find Sign Language Interpreters

    Education Minister Says Struggle to Find Sign Language Interpreters

    As the 2026 academic year kicks off across Belize, a gap in accessible education has come to the forefront, with multiple deaf students returning to in-person classes without the critical support of a qualified sign language interpreter. The ongoing shortage has left parents of deaf learners and disability rights advocates sounding the alarm, warning that the lack of accommodation undermines the fundamental right to equal educational opportunity for deaf and hard-of-hearing students across the country.

    In a recent public address addressing the growing concern, Belize’s Minister of Education Francis Fonseca acknowledged the severity of the crisis, confirming that the nation’s total pool of certified, professionally trained sign language interpreters numbers fewer than 12 people. This extremely limited workforce is far outstripped by demand across the country’s K-12 and higher education institutions, leaving many students without the communication access they need to fully participate in classroom learning.

    Fonseca explained that while the Ministry of Education has recognized the shortage for years and has implemented incremental strategies to expand the workforce, systemic barriers have slowed progress. For nearly a decade, the ministry has offered targeted scholarship programs to encourage Belizeans to pursue interpreter training and national certification, and has ramped up these outreach efforts in recent months. The government has also run repeated public job advertisements to fill both full-time interpreter roles and para-professional support positions for special needs students, many of whom require full-time in-class assistance to access their lessons.

    Even with these active efforts, Fonseca was frank about the challenges the ministry continues to face, pointing to low compensation as a core structural barrier attracting new professionals to the field. “These jobs don’t pay much, that’s the reality,” he noted, adding that officials are now exploring adjustments to compensation packages to make careers in sign language interpretation more financially attractive for new trainees.

    The minister emphasized that his office remains committed to addressing the needs of affected families, stating that every available resource is being directed to mitigate the shortage and resolve access gaps as quickly as possible. Disability advocacy groups have echoed the call for faster action, noting that delayed access to interpretation puts deaf students at a permanent disadvantage in academic progress and long-term educational outcomes.

  • St Mary’s Primary scholarship winners get a surprise

    St Mary’s Primary scholarship winners get a surprise

    For Kailey Corbin, Sarah Mayers and their mothers, a routine summons from St Mary’s Primary School staff to the offices of Goddard Enterprises Ltd (GEL) carried an unexpected, life-changing reward. The group had no prior hint of the purpose of their visit, so the announcement that the two young students had been selected as the 2026 recipients of GEL’s prestigious secondary school transition scholarship came as a joyful shock.

    Established to ease the financial and logistical gap between primary and secondary education, the full scholarship will cover all core back-to-school costs for the students, including tuition fees, uniforms, footwear, and all other academic supplies required for enrollment at their new secondary institutions.

    Sarah Mayers, who will attend St George Secondary School when the new term begins, is already planning for her next chapter. A passionate netball player who held the Goal Shoot position on her primary school team, she hopes to rejoin the sport at her new school. A self-described grammar enthusiast, Sarah shared mixed feelings about leaving her primary school alma mater, but said she is eager to connect with new teachers, build new friendships, and dive into the new secondary-level subjects she has long heard about. After accepting her official scholarship plaque from GEL Executive Assistant Shareka Clarke, Sarah spoke to her academic reputation: teachers at St Mary’s Primary describe her as a respectful, diligent and goal-driven student with a sincere passion for learning. As a Senior Prefect during her final year, she demonstrated consistent responsibility, mature decision-making and natural leadership, earning praise as a positive role model for her fellow students.

    For Kailey Corbin, the next step will be attending St Michael School, the Martindale’s Road institution she has long dreamed of attending. While Kailey counts mathematics among her favorite current subjects, she is especially excited to continue developing her love of art – a long-time hobby that grew from her passion for drawing. She also looks forward to continuing her work in science and robotics, areas she already got to explore at St Mary’s Primary, where she had the chance to build robots from scratch. A dedicated builder at heart, she hopes her new school will expand these opportunities and let her grow the skills she has already started building.

    Like Sarah, Kailey served as a Senior Prefect at St Mary’s Primary, and her teachers share glowing assessments of her character and academic performance. They describe her as an exceptional student who has stood out among her peers for her strong work ethic, top-tier academic results, and consistently respectful, exemplary conduct. A committed learner who regularly shows resilience, accountability, and a willingness to support her classmates, Kailey’s positive mindset and dedication to self-improvement have earned her the respect of both staff and fellow students at her primary school.

    In her congratulatory remarks to the two scholarship recipients, Clarke urged the young graduates to stay focused on their long-term goals as they adjust to secondary school. She acknowledged that new environments often bring unexpected distractions, but reminded the students that their hard work and proven character had already prepared them to succeed.

  • UWI Professors Among 2026 Yidan Prize change makers

    UWI Professors Among 2026 Yidan Prize change makers

    On Monday, the Yidan Prize Foundation, a leading global philanthropic organization focused on education advancement, named four trailblazing academics the 2026 Yidan Prize laureates during a Hong Kong press conference. The announcement marks a decade of the foundation elevating game-changing education innovators from across the globe, delivering targeted resources to expand their transformative work.

    Chaired by Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills, the prize’s independent judging panel selected two cohorts of winners across the Yidan Prize’s two core awards: Education Research and Education Development. University of Minnesota Regents Professor Paul W. Glewwe took home the 2026 Yidan Prize for Education Research, recognized for four decades of rigorous, field-shaping work that has reoriented education policy to break systemic barriers to learning for children in marginalized, low-income communities.

    A second cohort of three experts, Professor Susan P. Walker, Professor Sally Grantham-McGregor, and Dr Susan M. Chang-Lopez, claimed the 2026 Yidan Prize for Education Development. The trio was honored for developing the ground-breaking, evidence-based Reach Up early childhood development intervention, which has reshaped life trajectories for children growing up in low-resource, displaced, and Indigenous communities worldwide.

    Each of the two Yidan Prizes comes with a total award of HK$30 million, roughly equivalent to US$3.8 million. The funding is split evenly between a HK$15 million unrestricted cash prize and a HK$15 million project grant, giving laureates full flexibility to scale their work and reach more communities in need. Since the prize launched in 2017, the foundation has distributed a total of HK$600 million (approximately $77 million USD) to 25 laureates, supporting education initiatives across nearly 60 countries and regions.

    Reflecting on the 10-year milestone, Yidan Prize founder Dr Charles Chen Yidan framed the award as a guiding beacon for global education progress. “Over the past decade, the collective impact of our laureates has turned the Yidan Prize into a lighthouse that illuminates pathways forward for global education,” Chen said. “Every new laureate strengthens our shared commitment, brings transformative new ideas, and expands the ways we shape the future of learning worldwide.”

    Glewwe, an applied economics professor at the University of Minnesota, earned the research prize for his pioneering work unpacking how non-school factors – including socioeconomic status, health, and nutrition – shape long-term learning outcomes for children. He revolutionized global education data collection by integrating literacy, numeracy, and abstract reasoning metrics for children and parents into the World Bank’s standard household surveys, a shift that has helped policymakers worldwide better map the connections between poverty, inequality, and educational gaps. He also pioneered the widespread use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to test the effectiveness of education programs and policies, enabling governments and global development organizations to direct limited resources to approaches proven to boost learning outcomes. Beyond these contributions, Glewwe was among the first economists to integrate social-emotional skill development into economic analyses of education and global development. His work, spanning more than 15 developing nations, has reshaped education policy and on-the-ground practice across every inhabited continent.

    Elizabeth M. King, head of the Yidan Prize for Education Research judging panel, emphasized the outsized real-world impact of Glewwe’s decades of work. “Transforming education systems and outcomes only happens when uncompromising scientific rigor is paired with a fierce commitment to improving people’s lives,” King explained. “For nearly 40 years, Paul Glewwe has delivered exactly that rigor. He has given governments the evidence they need to allocate public spending wisely, given teachers the tools they need to instruct effectively, and opened the door of opportunity for millions of vulnerable children to learn, thrive, and break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.”

    For the education development prize, Walker, Grantham-McGregor, and Chang-Lopez earned the honor for their decades of work building the Reach Up early childhood intervention, a low-cost, scalable model that empowers caregivers to support healthy early development from birth to age four. Walker is an emeritus professor of nutrition at the University of the West Indies’ Caribbean Institute for Health Research, Grantham-McGregor is emeritus professor of International Child Health and Development at University College London, and Chang-Lopez is a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies’ Caribbean Institute for Health Research. The trio began their careers researching early childhood health and nutrition, where they uncovered the outsized long-term impact of early stimulation and consistent quality caregiver-child interaction on lifelong development. Leveraging this foundational evidence, they designed a practical, adaptable intervention that builds caregivers’ capacity to nurture cognitive growth through simple, low-cost activities integrated into daily routines. Unlike costly specialized early childhood programs, Reach Up is rooted in local cultural contexts and delivered through existing public health, social protection, education, and humanitarian systems, making it easy to scale in low-resource settings. Today, the program operates in more than 21 countries across the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and all of Reach Up’s curricula and training materials are available for free globally, with continuous iterative updates based on real-world outcome data.

    Dorothy K. Gordon, head of the Yidan Prize for Education Development judging panel, praised the trio’s approachable, high-impact innovation. “Reach Up gives millions of children a far better chance at an equal start in learning, education, and life,” Gordon said. “The laureates have proven that lasting, large-scale change can be achieved through a combination of rigorous evidence, cross-sector partnership, and local leadership. The immense global impact of their work grows from the rigor of their pathbreaking interdisciplinary research, paired with a practical, well-designed toolbox of interventions that meet communities where they are.”

    To mark the 2026 awards, the new laureates will gather in Hong Kong for the annual Yidan Prize Summit, held from 3 to 5 December 2026. The three-day event will feature collaborative conversations around the theme of reimagining education for the AI age, building on 2025’s discussion of global education at a crossroads. This year’s summit will center on a paradigm shift: framing education not as a contained physical space, but as a dynamic driving force for inclusive, interconnected ecosystems rooted in human connection, creativity, and deep learning. The 2026 Yidan Prize formal awards ceremony will cap off the summit on its final day, where the laureates will receive their gold medals and official awards.

    Looking ahead, the Yidan Prize Foundation has opened the nomination window for the 2027 prize, which will run from 27 October 2026 through 2 March 2027. As the world’s highest-profile education award, the Yidan Prize continues to center future-oriented, innovative, sustainable work that delivers transformative impact for communities globally. Founded in 2016, the foundation’s core mission is to build a better world through education, bringing together a global network of education changemakers – including researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and philanthropists – to exchange knowledge, raise standards for the field, shape global education agendas, and accelerate large-scale progress.

  • UB Students Raise Red Flags Over LockDown Browser

    UB Students Raise Red Flags Over LockDown Browser

    Amid the growing shift to digital assessment tools in higher education, students at the University of Belize (UB) are bringing forward a series of pressing concerns regarding the institution’s adoption of LockDown Browser for online quizzes and exams, highlighting technical failures, time-related disruptions, mental health strains, and privacy questions that have yet to be formally addressed by university leadership.

    The core complaint from affected students centers on consistent technical glitches that cut into the limited allotted time for timed assessments. Multiple users have reported that the secure testing browser regularly freezes mid-assessment, crashes unexpectedly, or fails to launch properly during the initial verification process. For students working against strict time limits, these unplanned interruptions leave them with far less time to complete their work, a issue that many fear will ultimately drag down their academic performance.

    Beyond the immediate technical disruption, students warn that poor performance stemming from these avoidable technical issues could carry long-term financial as well as academic consequences, from lost scholarship eligibility to lowered cumulative grade point averages that impact future education and career prospects.

    The National Student Union of Belize (NSUB) has confirmed that it has collected dozens of informal complaints from UB students about the tool, and estimates the actual number of affected students is far higher. NSUB President Tomas Serrut explained that while fewer than 20 students have directly reached out to the union to report issues, most of those respondents noted that dozens of their classmates and friends have also encountered problems with the browser. Serrut added that the time-related disruptions have already created measurable harm to student well-being, driving increased anxiety and chronic stress around high-stakes online testing.

    Privacy concerns have also been raised by some students, who question the extent of access the software grants university administrators to activity on students’ personal devices, which many use for both school and personal life. Serrut noted that while these privacy worries are valid, they must be balanced against the university’s stated goal of upholding academic integrity in online testing, a longstanding challenge for post-secondary institutions that has led to widespread adoption of secure browsing tools to prevent student cheating.

    “I think that we need to look at modern solutions and also respect the privacy of students. But at the same time, we need to understand that we live in a digital age, so the concerns that the administration may have could be very well valid because there’s a lot of cheating that goes on as well in these institutions between students,” Serrut said in an interview.

    When contacted by local outlet News 5, UB officials confirmed that the institution has not received any formal complaints about the use of LockDown Browser to date.

    Serrut and the NSUB are now calling for an open, collaborative discussion between student representatives and university administration to address the growing list of student concerns, work through technical kinks, and find a solution that balances academic integrity protections with student privacy and well-being. “I think it’s important that we have open discussions about the way students are being educated and certain precautions, which we also understand, must be taken in this growing digital world,” Serrut added.

  • More Tomorrow School Closure? Ministry Responds

    More Tomorrow School Closure? Ministry Responds

    In response to widespread circulating rumors that More Tomorrow Primary School in Belize’s Cayo District would be permanently closed this week, the country’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology has issued an official written clarification to debunk the false reports.

    The unconfirmed closure claims sparked significant anxiety among parents of enrolled students and local community members earlier this week, prompting urgent demands for a formal response from education authorities. Local media outlet News 5 first attempted to secure direct comment from Dian Maheia, Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Education, but did not receive an immediate reply to its inquiry. Shortly after, the ministry released a public statement Wednesday morning to address the growing public concern.

    “There have been unfounded claims circulating that our ministry is moving to shut down More Tomorrow Primary School this week – this information is simply not accurate,” the statement read. “Rather than planning for permanent closure, the Ministry is currently holding active, constructive discussions with parents, school administrators and other members of the school community to work through the multiple challenges the institution is currently facing, most notably critical staffing shortfalls.”

    Ministry officials emphasized that the core goal of these ongoing consultations is to co-develop practical, sustainable solutions that will enable all students attending More Tomorrow Primary to continue accessing consistent, quality primary education on site. No additional timeline for the conclusion of talks or further details on the full scope of challenges at the school have been released to the public as of September 2, 2026.

  • UWI scholars among 2026 Yidan Prize laureates for early childhood education

    UWI scholars among 2026 Yidan Prize laureates for early childhood education

    As the world-renowned Yidan Prize marks its 10th year of elevating transformative education innovation, three pioneering researchers have been named the 2026 recipients of the prize’s Education Development honor, with two hailing from The University of the West Indies (The UWI).

    The 2026 laureate announcement was made public at an official press conference hosted in Hong Kong, capping a decade of the foundation’s work identifying and supporting global education changemakers. Chaired by Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills, the prize’s independent Judging Committee selected Emeritus Professor Susan P. Walker, Senior Lecturer Dr Susan M. Chang-Lopez, both of The UWI’s Caribbean Institute for Health Research, and Emeritus Professor Sally Grantham-McGregor of University College London for the 2026 Education Development award.

    The trio was recognized for their groundbreaking work developing Reach Up, an evidence-based early childhood development intervention tailored to children from birth to age four, with a specific focus on vulnerable communities. Unlike costly, one-size-fits-all early childhood programs, Reach Up centers on low-cost, culturally flexible activities integrated into daily family routines. It equips caregivers with practical skills and confidence to interact with young children through responsive conversation, play, and engagement — interactions that directly boost children’s long-term cognitive growth.

    Today, the Reach Up model has been adopted across more than 21 countries spanning the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, integrated into national health, education, social protection, and humanitarian aid systems. A core feature of the program is its open-access design: all curricula and supporting materials are available to users for free, and the framework undergoes continuous evaluation and iterative adaptation to meet the unique needs of local communities around the globe.

    The 2026 Yidan Prize also awarded its Education Research Prize to Professor Paul W. Glewwe of the University of Minnesota. Glewwe was honored for his influential research unpacking how socioeconomic status, health, and nutrition intersect to shape educational outcomes. Through rigorous methodological work including large-scale randomized controlled trials, Glewwe’s findings have directly informed evidence-based education policy design in more than 15 developing nations.

    Reflecting on the 10th anniversary of the prize, Dr Charles Chen Yidan, founder of the Yidan Prize Foundation, emphasized the award’s enduring mission. “The work and collective impact of our laureates over the past decade have made the Yidan Prize a lighthouse to illuminate pathways forward in global education,” he said. “Every laureate strengthens this commitment, brings transformative ideas, and expands the ways in which we shape the future of education.”

    Each 2026 Yidan Prize laureate receives a total award of HK$30 million (approximately $3.83 million USD), split equally between a personal cash prize of HK$15 million and a HK$15 million project fund to support continued work in education innovation and research. The 2026 Yidan Prize Summit is scheduled to run in Hong Kong from December 3 to 5, with the official awards ceremony set to take place on the summit’s closing day.