Formal education systems tend to experience an ever-recurring need for curriculum change and renewal. One reason for this undoubtedly is that we live in a changing world with changing needs; and education systems have to be always ready to make adaptations for the satisfaction of emergent needs.

Creolization of languages in the Caribbean has resulted in a present-day situation where different locations, traditionally assumed to be speaking the same language, now find themselves with significant current differences in language use. This poses several problems for educational practice where international acceptability is one of the goals. This paper identifies some problems relating to grammatical conventions, semantic shift, and the co-existence of creoles and their related standard languages in the teaching and learning of foreign languages.

This article examines the issue of funding of population activities in the Caribbean generally and the international funding of sexual and reproductive health programs in particular. The paper notes that, as a result of the successful management of population problems, many Caribbean countries have been slated for reduced international funding, especially from the IPPF.

The alleged underachievement of males within the educational system has become the subject of ongoing debate in both academic and lay circles in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

In the issue preceding this, we ended the editorial with the following statement and question: 
".. the vastness of the background of persistently continuing concerns raises the question of whether the necessary quantum of research and reflection, as precursors to action, is keeping pace with the volume of 
needs in the Caribbean. Is it?” 
 
A return to the question seems appropriate for the present issue.

This article examines some science curricula at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of the Jamaican education system. It considers these curricula in light of a perceived need for improving the content base of teachers in specific disciplines. Students' and teachers' misunderstanding of some pivotal science concepts is identified as a root problem associated with low achievement in science at the secondary level. Strategies which have been employed over the last decade for improving performance in science are mentioned and concerns are noted.

Transition to school is one of the major steps that each child has to take in the education continuum. Evidence from the existing literature suggests that the movement from early childhood education to primary school is very traumatic for many children. There is also research evidence which contends that this transition to the first year of primary school is very important for the child's future intellectual development. This article examines the literature on transition to school, and discusses the importance of the transition and the need to minimise its possibly adverse effects.

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 importance of the arts in education has been argued for decades. Underlying many of the arguments in favour of arts education is the belief that if education focuses exclusively and predominantly on one mode of cognition- that is the conceptual- then schools are denying children essential areas of human development. Arts educators have pointed to the value of the arts describing them as "an education of the senses" (Witkin 1974), and a means to developing aesthetic behaviours such as perceiving, reacting and valuing (Reimer 1971).

The article focuses on the practical component of a professional development programme for trained teachers built on a model that seeks to empower teachers as reflective practitioners who assume responsibility for improving their own practice. It outlines the practicum before and after restructuring and then assesses the impact of the restructured practicum on a group of Language Education (English) students.