After Trinidad and Tobago gained independence in 1962, noticeable changes began to take place in the Education System. An important aim of these changes was to increase educational opportunities by providing greater access to secondary education. A conscious effort was set in train, therefore, to expand and transform the education system. Changes in the system which began after the attainment of statehood greatly accelerated in the seventies thanks to considerably increased revenues from the oil windfall. The decade of the seventies was characterised by much educational ferment, a good deal of which is still evident today.