This is the first issue of the first volume of the Journal of Education and Development in the Caribbean.

This paper examines three attempts at curriculum change in education systems that span the Caribbean. These attempts all took place in the 1970s and 1980s. They are:(i) the Guyana Mathematics Project, (ii) the Grade 10-11 Programme in New Secondary Schools in Jamaica, and:(iii) the UWI/USAID Primary Education Project across several Caribbean countries. Important aspects of these projects are analysed with a view to suggesting the lessons they can provide for subsequent attempts at curriculum development.

The special theme for this issue of the Journal was inspired by the first international distance education conference held in Georgetown, Guyana in September 1999. The theme of the conference was ‘Promoting Quality, Pragmatism and Partnership in Distance Education Delivery’. Delegates came from Australia, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the United Kingdom.