The current wave of educational reform in Trinidad and Tobago follows the pattern in the West, at least in its rhetoric. Excellence, total quality management, quality assurance, school improvement, are buzz phrases associated with the larger concept of national unity and total quality nation. This paper argues that achieving the educational utopias and panaceas implied by these value laden terms demands a real­istic appraisal of the education system, and more specifically teacher education. The Education Policy Paper: 1993-2003 (Ministry of Education 1993), is used as the source document.