REDEFINING CARIBBEAN EDUCATION: AN URGENT IMPERATIVE



HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT: RESHAPING CARIBBEAN EDUCATION – AN URGENT IMPERATIVE

Background

The Thirty-Fourth Regular Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government, Trinidad and Tobago, July 2013, ‘agreed to devote a Special Session of the Twenty-Fifth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference, in March 2014, to addressing issues related to Human Resource Development (HRD)’. The Cluster of CARICOM Regional Institutions responsible for Human Resource Development was charged with preparing the submission for the Inter-Sessional Meeting and has worked in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat in preparation of the Document. The Cluster of Institutions is chaired by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and includes The University of the West Indies, (UWI) University of Guyana, (UG) The Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN), and the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD).

The presentation focuses on several key issues which have also been the focus of attention by the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD). It recognises that Human Resource Development is not confined to that which transpires in schools and other institutions of learning, but indeed extends to consideration of lifelong learning across ages. It highlights in particular, the importance of addressing capacity building for public sector reform in order to meet the demands of transformation in other sectors and other emerging imperatives across the whole of government.

The presentation will be led by the Lead Head of Government for Human Resource Development, Health and HIV/AIDS, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, supported by the Chair of the CARICOM HRD Cluster of Institutions, Dr. Didacus Jules.

The Summary of the presentation outlined below, highlights the major areas for consideration by the Conference.

1. SUMMARY

This paper emerges from initial dialogue in the newly established CARICOM Human Resource Development Cluster chaired by the Caribbean Examinations Council. It speaks to the urgency of the need to transform education and human resource development in the region for several reasons:

• Build the capacity of Caribbean people to create regenerative societies

• Forge a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship

• Eliminate the significant wastage occurring in the education systems

The argument of this urgency is presented through indicative statistics that paint the empirical reality confronting us.

The presentation envisions a different architecture for education in the region that is predicated on a whole-systems approach which requires institutional convergence and programmatic coherence. It goes on to make concrete recommendations on what needs to be done at the level of Heads of Government which will signal the political will and create the enabling environment for fundamental change of the system at the regional and national levels.

2. PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION

The philosophical basis of the presentation rests on three propositions:

1. That regional integration is not just an ideological desire but a developmental necessity in which economies of scale, effort and influence can be realized

2. That education is the only guarantee of future survival and sustainability of our societies

and that the more difficult things become, the more

necessary it is.

3. That equity in education is essential to the realization of the promise of education for the creation of opportunity, democracy and regeneration.

3. THE CURRENT PICTURE

Education in the Caribbean has made significant gains in the last two decades but there are deep seated structural deficiencies that cripple the potential of the future.

GAINS DEFICIENCIES

Universal access to Primary Education Low access to Early Childhood Development

Near Universal Access to Secondary Education Low school performance

Improvement in the average years of educational attainment of the population (from 4.3 years in 1960 to 10.3 years today)

Imbalance in CXC subject entries

Significant expansion of tertiary education School graduates with inadequate skills

Regional benchmarking of secondary examinations through common assessment

(CXC: CSEC and CAPE)

High stratification of learning outcomes and achievements in educational systems

Failure in education is systemic and therefore requires policy interventions if it is to be addressed. Many essential subjects are not being pursued by students at secondary school. Key deficiencies include foreign languages, Caribbean history, Geography, Technical subjects, Art and Music to name a few.

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Too great a percentage of the annual cohort of students sitting terminal secondary school examinations receive

acceptable grades in none or less than two subjects

If we measure pass rates as a percentage of the grade cohort rather than as a percentage of the cohort sitting the exam, the performance picture gets more dismal.

Inequity in the system prevents education from being an instrument of social progress, mobility and opportunity.

The high cost of education is a challenge to us especially as Caribbean Governments spend more on education than even many developed countries.

This makes it essential that we

find internal efficiencies and more effective ways of doing

more with less.

4. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

The presentation identifies seven (7) things that must be done for the transformation of education in the region:

(i) Creating a seamless, globally competitive education (eco) system:

• Educational opportunity for all ages and through all stages

• Rationalize and refocus all learning and training infrastructure in each country and in region

• Create multiple pathways to success

(ii) Filling the provision gaps... with equity:

• Address provision gaps in ECD, special needs and tertiary

• Converge social programming on poverty and equity

• Take a holistic approach to gender and other differentials

(iii) Addressing the quality imperative:

• Focus on quality inputs, quality processes and quality outputs

• Special attention to teacher quality (linked to teacher training and conditions)

• Deliberation to learning spaces suited to our conditions

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(iv) Improving performance with gender and socio- economic status sensitivity:

• Attention to Policy as the statement of standards and expectations

• A different approach to Pedagogy

• Redefining the content of education in C21

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(v) Creating sustainable efficiencies to guarantee the future:

• Closer examination of the financing of education and value for money proposition

• Rationalizing current initiatives and centralizing the financing mechanisms

• Elimination of wastage in education

(vi) Aligning & rationalizing higher education: Caribbean innovation, entrepreneurship and development:

• Addressing access, equity, relevance and quality of higher education

• Reform of UWI: towards a University System of the West Indies?

(vii) Setting our Own Agenda: asserting Caribbean priorities in the face of multilateral prescription:

• Creating a converged agenda: institutional and programmatic rationality, integrated interventions and holistic planning

• National imperatives;

regional priorities

Public Sector Reform

Intersecting these seven imperatives is the need for public sector reform in the arena of education and human resource development. Many of the institutional transformations required or implied by the measures listed earlier are not unique to the sphere of education but are consistent with wider changes that need to be made in the institutional matrix of the Caribbean public sector if it is to overcome the challenges of delivery.

Tertiary Education Reform

Provision of tertiary education has become a major challenge to Caribbean governments given the relatively higher cost of delivery and the increasing demand. In recent times there has been a relatively unregulated influx of foreign providers offering degree programs with less stringent standards than those required by our traditional providers.

The presentation examines the tertiary education needs of the region and makes concrete recommendations for a rationalization of the public tertiary education sector in the Caribbean. It proposes a structural realignment of the University of the West Indies with national tertiary education institutions and the creation of a University System of the West Indies and the leveraging of distance education technologies to meet the demand in a highly cost effective but quality driven manner.

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Given the challenges of financing of education and the need for better management of the investment in this vital sector, the presentation recommends that the Caribbean Development Bank play a stronger coordinating role in the mobilization of resources for education and human resource development. The Bank’s track record and its incorporation of knowledge management in defining its development agenda makes it ideally suited to playing that role. Most importantly, the Bank’s involvement should further insulate Member States from the prescriptions of the multilaterals by aligning resources to the transformational agenda proposed in this presentation and not to the projectised needs of individual donors.

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Caribbean Development Bank

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