-Less than 15% of CARICOM nationals have tertiary education
-66% have two or less CSEC subjects

By Ravin Singh in Grenada
STARTLING revelations, which indicate a sad state of affairs in the education sector of the region, was made by a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Commission on Human Resource Development.
That Commission announced on Wednesday that it had discovered that less than 15 percent of CARICOM nationals have tertiary education, and of this amount, an astounding 66 percent have two or less subjects at the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) level.

The announcement of this discovery was made by two members of the Commission during a press conference on the sidelines of the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Grenada. The Commissioners were at the time sharing with reporters, recommendations it made in its 2030 Human Resource Development Strategy. That strategy, which seeks to enhance human resource capabilities in the region by 2030, will form part of the discussions of the regional leaders today.

Registrar of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC), Glenroy Cumberbatch was the first to highlight the need for tertiary level education. With the region heavily dependent on tourism, he said that the economies of the Caribbean can be described as “service economies,” and that these must be knowledge-based or skills-based. He stated that as a result, there is now a growing demand for people with tertiary level education to drive these economies which have not been performing so well over the last few years.
“We need more people with tertiary level education including community colleges in order to drive our economies” he said, adding that presently, less than 15 per cent of nationals in the Caribbean have tertiary level education. The only performances referenced were that of Grenada, which has a 26 percent tertiary level training, and Barbados which has an impressive 65 percent.

And according to the CXC Registrar, one of the main factors responsible for this low overall figure is limited access to tertiary education.
“The access is not sufficient. We are not just talking about university education. We are talking about university education, sixth form education, community college education” he said, adding that it is becoming increasingly important to regional economies for CARICOM nationals to have tertiary level training. He offered that if this can be achieved, then the kind of change that the region has been searching for over the years will be ushered in.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Commission, Deputy Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Shawn Richards disclosed that 66 per cent of tertiary graduates in the region have between 0-2 subjects at the CSEC level, while 12 per cent have between 3-4 subjects and 22 percent have five or more subjects.

The Chairman offered that these are “startling statistics” which needs to be improved at the soonest possible time.
To assist with this, he said that several recommendations were offered in the 2030 development strategy which looks at building resilience among people in CARICOM, from an economic, social and technological standpoint. To provide a direct representation of the realities in the region, he said that the Commission took into consideration a number of changes in the Caribbean which affects citizens; such as information and communications technology (ICT) and its impacts on the region.

In addition, he said that the strategy factors in the realities of every level of education and social conditions which would have even prevented persons from accessing nursery school. For that reason, the Chairman noted that heavy emphasis was also placed on early childhood education as this remains one of the crucial factors which influences the decisions children make.
The Committee will submit the Strategy to the Heads of Government who will examine and deliberate on its contents.