At the Fourth International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME IV) held at Berkeley in August 1980, Prof. Ubiratan D'Ambrosio proposed to Caribbean participants that there should be a conference sponsored by the Inter-American Committee on Mathematical Education (IACME) on mathematics education in the English-speaking Caribbean. This suggestion was accepted and it was also agreed that Dr. Fred Lemmer, a board member of IACME and a staff member of the University of Suriname, would try to organise such a conference to be held in his country.