Since 1952 the Department of Educational Studies (DES), with peri­odic variations of its name, has been involved in training secondary school teachers. Indeed, its establishment marked the first attempt to build indigenous capacity to train secondary school teachers in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Later, through the Certificate in Education and the Bachelor of Education (BEd), which commenced in the late 1960s, DES became involved in training primary school principals and teachers, with the college programme of initial training a prerequisite.