EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENGLISH - SPEAKING CARIBBEAN A Contemporary Survey UNESCO ECLA UNDP ; »UUU I4221 - BIBLIOTECA CEPAL I ; PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Organización de las Naciones Unidas Programa de Jas Naciones Unidas Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Comisión Económica para ei Ciencia y la Cultura para América Latina Desarrollo proyecto "Desarrollo y Educación en América Latina y el Caribe" Laurence D. Carrington EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN A CONTEMPORARY SURVEY Introduction by GermSn W. Rama Distr. GENERAL DEALC/16 October 19 78 780801 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH CONTENTS Chapter Page INTRODUCTION i FOREWORD . 1 I ECONOMIC INDICATORS 3 Area and Population 3 External trade and its direction 5 Government Revenue and Expenditure 12 Gross Domestic Product 13 Tourism 17 Political Status and Orientation 18 Summary 20 II LABOUR FORCE 21 Jamaica 21 Barbados 25 Guyana 26 Trinidad and Tobago 28 Windward and Leewards 29 Summary 31 III REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 33 Primary and secondary 33 Common Problems 35 Pre-Primary Level 35 Primary Level 36 Secondary Level 39 IV EDUCATION WITHIN NATIONAL GOALS 43 Barbados 43 Primary Level 44 Secondary Level 45 Guyana 48 The Pre-primary Sector 54 Primary Education 54 Secondary Education 57 School types at the secondary level 61 Other provisions . 61 Guyana National Service 62 Jamaica 62 Pre-primary Level 65 Primary Education 65 Secondary Education 68 Trinidad and Tobago 70 Primary Level 70 - i - Chapter Page Secondary Level 73 Technical and Vocational 75 Windwards and Leewards .. 79 V THE UNIVERSITIES 81 VI LANGUAGE AND DEVELOPMENT 85 Language and Development Problems 85 Attitudes toward Creoles 86 The Effects of Language Conflict 86 Policy development 87 VII OVERVIEW 89 SUMMARY - .RESUME - RESUME*! 93 APPENDIX I - Dependency ratios 97 APPENDIX II - Notes on the labels for types of schools ... 99 APPENDIX III 101 APPENDIX IV - Jamaica. Flow diagram: Pre-primary, Primary and Secondary Levels 113 APPENDIX V - Barbados. Flow chart of school system .... 115 APPENDIX VI - Guyana. Flow chart of school system 117 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....... 119 List of tables Number Page 1 Area and population of English-speaking Caribbean States . 4 2 Urban population - English-speaking Caribbean 5 3 Direction of trade, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad 6 Tobago, 1967 and 1974 6 4 Direction of trade. Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad £ Tobago, 1967 and 1974 7 5 Barbados - Selected domestic exports of total domestic exports, 1975 ................ 8 - ii - imb' 6 Trinidad £ Tobago. Exports and imports 7 Trinidad £ Tobago. Exports of petroleum sector vs. agricultural sector . 8 Exports, imports and trade balances. Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad £ Tobago 9 Imports, exports and balances 1975 10 Government revenue and expenditure . 11 Gross Domestic Product at current factor cost, 1976 . 12 Comparative growth of GDP, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad £ Tobago, Selected years 13 Barbados: Contribution to GDP of sectors 14 Guyana: Contribution to GDP of industrial sectors 15 Jamaica: Contribution to GDP of industrial sectors, purchasers' values, current cost 16 Trinidad £ Tobago: Contribution to GDP of industrial sectors 17 Jamaica: Labour force by training received 18 Jamaica: Unemployed labour force by training received . 19 Labour Force, employed and unemployed highest level of education attained 20 Jamaica: Occupational grouping of the unemployed labour force 21 Sectoral distribution of unemployed labour force 22 Working population 15 years and over by level of education. Jamaica, Trinidad £ Tobago, Guyana, Barbados, 1970 23 Vacancies available, Guyana, 1970 24 Industrial distribution of labour force, Trinidad £ Tobago, 1970 and 1974 25 Working population by main occupation groups, Windwards and Leewards, 1970 - iii - Number Page 26 Working population by major industrial groups, Windwards and Leewards, 1970 30 27 Working population 15 years and over by level of education, Windwards and Leewards, 1970 31 28 Barbados. Teachers actually in government owned and/or maintained schools at June 30, 1973 47 29 Guyana: Regional distribution of schools, places and surplus/deficit, 1970 and 1975 55 30 Guyana: Involvement ratio of pupils, primary schools, first level 56 31 Guyana: Trained teachers by educational administrative districts, 1970 and 1975 57 32 Guyana: Schools designated secondary by administrative district, 1970 and 1975 . 58 33 Guyana: Distribution of students enrolled in the secondary departments of all age schools, 1970 and 1975 59 34 Involvement ratios, secondary cycle, 1970 and 1975 59 35 Guyana: Teachers in schools designated secondary by qualifications and status, 1970 and 1975 60 36 Jamaica: Schools, places and overcrowding in primary and all age schools, 1975-76, by parish 66 37A. Jamaica. Teacher: Pupil ratios by parish showing overall ratios and trained teacher ratios, primary schools 67 37B. Jamaica. Teacher: Pupil ratios by parish showing overall ratios and trained teacher ratios, all age schools 67 38 Jamaica. Levels of teacher training in new secondary and secondary high, 1974 70 39 Trinidad S Tobago. Distribution of schools places and enrolment by planning regions 71 40 Trinidad & Tobago. Distribution and training of teachers and teacher: pupil ratios 72 41 Trinidad 6 Tobago. Regional distribution of secondary school places, October 1977 74 - iv - Number 4-2 Graduate and non-graduate proportions secondary schools. Trinidad £ Tobago 1977 75 4-3 Under-graduate student registration, full-time degrees, 1976-1977 82 44 University of Guyana: distribution of students by faculty, 1975 84 - v - INTRODUCTION The study made by L.D. Carrington is part of an overall investigation by the Project on styles of educational development. Two lines were explored in carrying out the programme. Following one of these, an investigation was made of the role of education in countries where priority was assigned to education within a modernization and national integra- tion policy. Two case studies were made following this line. In one case, arrangements were made with the National Planning and Co-ordi- nation Board of Ecuador (JUNAPLA) to conduct a study on "Education in the Modernization Process of Ecuador", to be published in 1978. In this case, petroleum was the instrument that set in motion the dynamic forces of the economy, and its exploitation gave rise to certain changes in the Ecuadorian development process. This economic change made it possible to undertake a social development policy wherein education began to play an important role in the modernization of the country, while at the same time experiencing the contradictions of the overall process of change. o The second case study was made in Peru, on "Social Structure, Development and Education in Peru (1950-1975)", which will shortly be completed. The outstanding feature of the Peruvian process is the political decision to introduce changes in various social spheres - education among them - and the balance between the achievements and the limitations resulting from the inertia of the social system vis-a-vis the changes originated in the political power. At the same time, the information available indicated that small countries of the Latin American region, as they attained social status as a nation, supported educational policies which led to significant achievements which appeared to be far beyond what might be expected from their economic resources and other structural conditions. The explanation for such educational policies had to be sought in different reasons, and their results would make it possible to consider from another angle the relative backwardness in education in other Latin American societies. In response to this concern, and following the second line of research, two studies were published by the Project: "Education and Development in Costa Rica" (DEALC/2), and "Education and Development in Paraguay. Basic Education" DEALC/7), and now presents a study on development and education in the principal English-speaking Caribbean countries: Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Notwithstanding the fact that the first two countries are of Spanish tradition and the rest are former British colonies in the West Indies, a detailed analysis shows that these national cases have common features in their social structure and in the orientation of their educational policies, which justify their inclusion in the same line of exploration. In the social sciences, comparison between different social structures has recognized limits and problems. Each national society possesses a history and a cultural significance of its own which encourage anthropological analysis, and - vii - what Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron called "resignation to non-compa- rability" "/ or else, a reduction of the social specificity of the phenomena under study, restricting the approach to some of their dimensions, which, while it facilitates comparison, does not reflect the complexity of the social situation. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that an analysis of education should not overlook the social use of education, of its significance in terms of employment, status, political participation, etc., and of the society and its various groups. Similar indicators can conceal different and even opposed configurations, since each indicator can only be evaluated in accordance with the significance it acquires in society. Consequently, the following remarks are aimed merely at describing a minimun of