FI WE BOLEDO

Earnings to the National Health Insurance & the Official Charities Fund

Continued from page 1 tion to and the successful ones use the profits from lottery to improve the lives of their people, not just a few special interest persons.

It is time for us in Belize, to use a similar model to what is being employed in places like Costa Rica and Canada, to distribute the Belize Government lotteries so that like Costa Rica and Canada we can use the revenue to help improve the lives of our people.

The Plan then is to establish a Government-owned company which will have its own legislation that defines its key functions and responsibilities.

For example, this company, which we will establish as the Belize Government Lotteries Ltd (BGLL) will be required:

(a) to promote, conduct and manage lottery schemes;

(b) to redistribute earnings from the lotteries it administers to the National Health Insurance (NHI) and the Official Charities Fund (OCF);

(c) ensure that the service provided is of international industry standards; and

(d) to comply with its lotteries license conditions and the respective laws.

BGLL will be a company with a core mandate for the sale of Government lottery services to provide revenue to the Government of Belize to fund the NHI and the OCF. It will be run by a Board of Directors that will meet regularly to set corporate management and oversight policies of the Corporation.

The day-to-day management of the Corporation will be administered by a Managing Director who will be assisted by

Manager.

There will be a tendering process to identify adequate master agents. These are the persons or entities that will be allowed to distribute boledo.

Four master agents will be chosen, one for the North, one for the South, one for the East and one for the West of the country. Any individual, store, or company interested in becoming a master agent can apply. The BGLL will build a digital platform and begin setting up an extensive sales distribution network through these 4 master agents. These master agents will have an agreement with the Corporation to have sales countrywide through subagents and electronic sales. These 4 master agents will be required to have a bank surety of a specific value to cover winnings. The master agents will also be required to have allow their subagents to make payment of winning up to a certain amount and anything exceeding this amount would be paid in redeeming centres located in each major town.

The second implementation phase of the digital lottery platform will see the consumer being able to purchase through their mobile phones. This innovation is projected to increase sales and ensure that consumers are allowed to easily check the winning numbers. This system will also secure winning tickets electronically, so no more about losing your tickets and unable to redeem your prize.

So as you can see Madam Speaker we are doing this right. While we know Belizeans miss their boledo, we want to ensure that boledo is once again Belizean for Belizeans and it is properly administrated to allow for the profits to be used for the development of our nation. I hope everyone in this chamber will vote in favour of these amendments which has the recommendation of the Cabinet.”

MoECST

Pro-Tempore 30 Teacher Training

Curriculum Reform Working Group

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology (MoECST) today constituted the pro-tempore Tertiary Teacher Training Curriculum Reform Working Group comprised of representatives from all teacher training institutions aimed at transforming to competency-based education.

The main areas of focus for the working group are to review, reform, and standardize the present teacher training programmes; develop recommendations for teacher educator training, and establish articulation protocols between the secondary and tertiary levels. The working group is chaired by Dr. Hon. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of State in the MoECST, and its members are:

· Dr. Eve Aird - Provost of Galen University

· Rosali Cruz - Teacher Educator, Corozal Junior College

· Dr. Karen Martinez - Dean of Stann Creek Ecumenical Junior College

· Rebecca Henriquez - Teacher Educator, Belize Adventist Junior College

· Thisbe Lucas-Usher - Dean of the University of Belize

· Miriam Paz - Head Itinerary Resource Officer, Primary Curriculum Pilot Project

· Juliet Moguel - Teacher Educator, Sacred Heart Junior College

· Hon. Elena Smith – Senator, Former President of the Belize National Teachers’ Union

· Consuelo Godfrey - Director of Teacher Training, Pathlight

· Dr. Cynthia Thompson - Chair, Belize Board of Teacher Education

· Dr. Priscilla Brown - Curriculum Consultant

· Dr. Mathias Vairez - Curriculum Consultant

· Natasha Mantock - Education Consultant, UNICEF

The Working Group Secretariat comprises:

• Cecilia Ramirez-Smith - Deputy Chief Education Officer

• Shanine Campbell - Education Officer, Curriculum and Assessment Unit

• Jeannie Garbutt-Franklin - Director of the Teacher Education Unit

The work of this group is expected to conclude by August 2023.