Certain continuing problems of educational development in the Commonwealth Caribbean become highlighted, even if only incidentally, as a background to the contributions in this issue of the journal. 
 
The reality is that, while primary education is reported to be universal or nearly so in all Caribbean countries, its quality has been seriously questioned through practical results on the ground, and in Caribbean regional studies over the past decade. Added to this however, is the fact that at the end of primary schooling, access to an internationally reputable quality of secondary education is still not universally available within most Caribbean countries. And at the other extreme, at the early childhood level preceding formal primary schooling, access to a good quality early education, as distinct from access to “day care”, is similarly not yet universally available. And this is the case in early childhood education, despite much pioneering work by individuals and institutions in the Caribbean over the past thirty years.