Theme of Workshop: EDUCATION – Best practices, identify and futher develop them and replicate them throughout the Caribbean

Date of Workshop: 7^th August 2010 .

Name of Chairman: Oscar Brathwaite

Names of Rapporteur: Ijahnya Christian

Motion for the adoption of this report was moved by Joseph Antoine and seconded by Oscar Brathwaite.

Consideration of paper presented by Dr. Didacus Jules, Head of Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) – Rethinking education in the Caribbean and the kinds of approaches needed for transformation from the post colonial system

The V Assembly was challenged to develop a PanCaribbean initiative on education and hopes for engagement with CXC in the way forward

Consideration of position forwarded by Mr. Oscar Brathwaite, Principal Consultant of Technical Education and Training International (TETIN), Canada - Education as a change agent to wean Caribbean dependence on developed countries

Key points noted:

New era of globalization is fraught with new challenges for SIDS

– increasing power of the multi-nationals has eroded the capacity of SIDS to have relative autonomy

– premise that developed countries have no interest in breaking the dependency of the developing countries because they profit from that dependency – particularly with regard to food

Social challenges identified (reference to World Bank Study 2003)

-Illicit drugs and alcohol

-Sexual and physical abuse that may be linked to high feelings of rage and violence (firearms & gangs)

-corporal punishment in the home (cultural normalcy)

-Early sexual debut of Caribbean children

-HIV and AIDS and other issues surrounding sexual and reproductive health

-High social and economic costs to society

-Loss of a generation

A critical analysis of the role of the multi-lateral institutions, (UNESCO, World Bank, external universities) in establishing Western hegemony by imposed conditions of their aid. Need for exceptional strong political will to say no to funding that would divert away from national goals – Mercusor and ALBA seeking to resist incorporation – perhaps an expanded resource base

A complete reinvention is needed. There must be a paradigmatic shift because the wider social challenges are impacting and exacerbating youth challenges – no longer education for personal development and advancement for the privileged but education for building social capital

This requires a fundamental rethinking of education provision not just incremental reform. It must take into consideration rapid technological advance – but be careful of the new paradigm in which education is considered a tradable commodity that offers distance education and qualification of questionable quality.

Need for alternative education to the current models that international organizations want to implement. Do not confine the search for best practices to the CARICOM but also look more widely within the Black World

Cuba, Guyana 1950s – UG in 1963; Michael Manley Jamaican 1970s, Jamal; Grenada Revolution Bishop 1980s, OECS Education Reform (1990s)

Centrality of people to the regional integration process requires harmonization of the education system.

Caribbean people need to engage in our own critical self-reflection rather than external prescription.

Brain Drain - Recruitment of teachers and nurses from the Caribbean to the USA, Britain and Canada – ageing populations and labour shortages – Caribbean has one of the highest net migration rates world wide and the State cannot fill the gap

Market Forces - Distance and offshore provision – high Caribbean demand for Tertiary Education – bigger margin of profit in the region and more and more seeking to cash in on these opportunities. The Caribbean has a comparative advantage in the billion dollar USD market for medical schools alone. The challenge is to impose strict regulations to ensure high standards.

A new Caribbean curriculum can also be made available and accessible to the Caribbean Diaspora where issues of identity continue to be experienced by second and third generations.

*Domincan Republic raised the issue of the privitisation of education with inputs of World Bank funding. This has outcomes of excluding some children in our educational centres. The delegates opposed this trend and encouraged the V Assembly to wage a campaign to advocate for high quality public education as education must be inclusive.

Rationale for harmonization of a Caribbean education system

- Economies of scale

- Objective of the free movement of people

- Building and strengthening regional educational institutions

- Ending the practice of partisan changes when governments change

- Not uniformity but common standards

- Educate about the region’s resources and how they can be exploited

There is need for a common standard – a single common entrance exam e.g. but one with a difference as there is too much pressure on children at the moment. We must have international benchmarks for literacy and numeracy with continuous assessments. This is not just about academic achievement but the kind of person being produced with extra-curricular activities taken into account.

What drives and motivates young people nowadays? The use of and familiarity with Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) can be fused with educational objectives that include the valuing and promotion of Caribbean culture. There is a vision of CXC offering CAPE certification in Pan, Reggae and Calypso Pan arrangers in Trinidad and Tobago (T &T) have asked CXC to create certification for them. In the future, CAPE students may be able to register online, pay their fees and engage in an interactive learning website to teach pan. CXC can will ship a pan made in T & T to students outside of the region. This is bigger than education – it is using interest in Caribbean culture to create a wider cultural industry for the Caribbean. The blend of culture and technology is anticipated to contribute to heightened youth interest.

DEFINITION OF EDUCATION But what does education mean to us? Is it about information with a piece of paper or is it a process by which a person in transformed continually into an accountable, responsible, innovative human being.

Our education system creates servants rather than leaders - Is our education system meeting the needs of Caribbean people – for the society

The purpose of education is empowerment to develop and build community and country

Education is to become qualified in preparation for the workforce – but unavailability of jobs on leaving school or university. Creating and expanding a culture of entrepreneurship must therefore be a primary objective.

Development of revolutionary concepts based on political awareness – How do we develop Caribbean people to accept first of all that we are Caribbean people – the IDENTITY question

Need for alternative education to the current models that international orgs want to implement. Education for production and self-reliance recognizing the challenges of free trade, which is not for the benefit of the developing countries and in which imbalances are inherent.

EDUCATION IS NOT SCHOOL – Adult Education, consumer education, Parenting Eduction, health education linked with nutrition and so on – ADULT EDUCATION /PARENTING EDUCATION – self-esteem in and socialization in child raising – linked to agriculture and wage earning

A MORE PRACTICALLY ORIENTED EDUCATION – How can young people be helped to be more excited about - Cultural competitions – baking contests etc that would involve young people in creating from indigenous foods – Forbes Burnham & Manley– Use what you grow –eat what you plant – Experiment with new industries – organic agriculture

Education to address POVERTY & INEQUITY including those associated with gender.

– What impacts WTO NAFTA do they have on the Caribbean?

- Where does the Caribbean stand and how can they overcome the obstacles

Discrimination, institutionalized practices of socialization and reinforced in education system. Post-colonial state – mass primary education to equip the next generation with literacy and numeracy, secondary education for management, public sector etc – limited access to tertiary education – highly competitive scholarships

(A) Solutions Agreed Upon

Please list and briefly outline each solution

Each organization present to establish weekly, ongoing cultural reinforcement programmes for young people designed to counteract the negative impact of popular media content.

CSME – how free – how autonomous – how are our youth being educated to understand these concepts? ACP to seek a partnership with the ECCB programme promoting CSME in schools

Language training with emphasis on pre-schools in our respective countries and immersion language training in the Spanish speaking countries for adults

2^nd language training as mandatory in the education system

Pre-school training – bi-lateral agreements between universities for the education and training of the teachers themselves - integral education

Teachers must keep abreast of new technologies for improved pedagogy – in region and outside - A PROCESS of change - teachers nowadays are not equipped for change – they encourage regurgitation, discourage use of creative imagination - teachers need to unlearn what they have been taught

Sometimes students do not see the need to take certain subjects – the curriculum must make students want to learn – retraining teachers – motivating students – must be relevant to students interests and needs and also - pedagogy

Encourage imagination

Reading and writing are becoming dying skills in this region – Come up with a programme to encourage reading and writing – add spelling – at a very early age

Regionalised education system with opportunities for sharing curriculum development - support the establishment of a regional curriculm development unit engaging regional teachers at every level producing a new fresh curriculum every 5 years, teacher training

Regional standards - A Regional educational curriculum that focuses on:

Education for Identity formation - Self-assertiveness, Self-reliance, self-confidence, to overcome inferiority complexes

Comprehensive sexuality education

Building technical and vocational education – a practical production complemented by academic work – Science, Technology and Mathematics – Ministries of Education linked to Ministries of Labour - Medicine now becoming a big techvoc field now – use of ICTs for diagnosing, interacting, prescribing etc.

Re-cycling education – it is a profound industry – a whole new industry

Encourage people to be system thinkers

Cultivate a culture of critical thinking and learning in a process of lifelong education

Educational Reform must be

- Strategic, sustainable and affordable

- Ongoing systemic and thorough – continual effort taking account fo costs

- Expanding access as well as opportunity

- Involve stakeholders and new partnerships involving other institutions and actions - Need for more active parental involvement in education – parenting education for adolescents – young woman who sang about what she’s going to teach her child when she gets one

- *Venezuela - Market – will help to add interest in farming. Business people invest in farming. Educate about the values of the different areas of production and promote the country – want can be best exploited

- Barbados has black belly sheep, Dominica has water - Educate about the region’s resources and how they can be exploited

BEYOND THE POST COLONIAL Critical factors that determine success

Knowledge management, information sharing and the need for structured focused discussion

Major flaw – no regional reform strategy – need to leap frog to wehre we need to be to become a global player –

Gender issue in the Caribbean – real challenge to deal with the issue of the differential of performance heart of the problem has to do with the weakness of our pedagogy – totally boring – especially for boys.

(B) Outline the Implementation Plan, including a time line for the Agreed Solutions

1. Lobby governments and engage in public education to promote critical thinking and social

Transformation - Paul Rock,

2. A new regional curriculum that focuses on –Oscar Brathwaite, Frederick Monderson, Paul Rock

-lifelong learning - Serious work in neural development. Most important neurological development, Lamming urged focus on primary schools, recommendation that we lobby for second language subjects to be mandatory at the secondary level

-second language acquisition by immersion for adults in Dominican Republic, Cuba or Puerto Rico - Profesor Domingo Mejia Frias

-teacher re-training and retention in the Caribbean Region (salaries, conditions etc.)

-practical, production (including agricultural production, inculcated at an early age)

3. Education for sustainable living – Sister Rock, Brother Antoine, Sister Cindy, Sister Ijahnya

-Comprehensive sexuality education

-Nutrition- linked to changing food habits and unhealthy dietary practices

-Psycho-social considerations

-Environmental Education – linked to changing consumption patterns, reduced waste production, development of recycling industry

(C) Any Other Additional Important Information or Recommendations

(D) The Initial Pan-Caribbean Implementation Team Agreed Upon

Name of Person Country of Residence

Sister Umojaa Rock Barbados

Brother Paul Rock Barbados

Dr. Fred Monderson USA

Professor Domingo Mejia Frias Dominican Republic

Sister Ijahnya Christian Anguilla

Brother Antoine Grenada

Brother Oscar Brathwaite Canada

(E) List of Names of all Participants in the Workshop

1. Joseph Antoine

2. Evelyne Nicol

3. Emily Wickham

4. Peter Monderson

5. Eesina Christian

6. Nsenga Legal

7. Sindi Medar-Gould

8. Eric Wickham

9. Umoja Rock

10. Domingo Mejia

11. Kofi Sankofa

12. Chanazz Noel

13. Basil Thomas

14. Aisha Wickham-Thomas

15. Jabari Wickham-Thomas

16. Sally Comissiong

17. Fred Monderson

18. Eglah Monderson

19. Sepwa Monderson

Signature of Rapporteur……………………………………………………………………………..

Signature of Chairperson ……………………………………………………………………………