Education roundtable on the challenges and opportunities in the Eastern Caribbean countries

12 July 2021
picture for news item
Credit: KIX LAC

On July 8 SUMMA and OECS held the fourth working group meeting on education with representatives from the Caribbean countries that make up the KIX hub in Latin America and the Caribbean. These countries include: Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  During the meeting, Dr. Verna Knight presented on the national studies that she conducted for KIX LAC with a team of researchers from the University of the West Indies. The reports highlighted the needs and current educational challenges, as well as evidence-based recommendations that could strengthen educational provisions and, by extension, the experiences of individual learners.

According to the reports, the challenges and negative effects generated by the Covid-19 pandemic significantly affected education in the Caribbean, mainly the deepening inequality in access to technology, the lack of pedagogical and technical preparation for teachers to be able to continue working online, the loss of instructional time and the poor Internet connectivity in the homes of most students.

Based on the data obtained during the studies and interviews with the main actors and representatives of education in the four countries, the authors made suggestions to continue the drive by governments and organizations involved to ensure that every student has access to technology, using different communication channels (e.g. radio, television, etc.) to reach the students who have the most connectivity problems.