The words of the Guyanese poet Martin Carter in “Death of a Comrade” seemed quite apt for the time of grief, bereavement, and remembrance of the woman to whom the paper is dedicated. This paper is writen in memory of a woman who became a lawyer and patriot, and who pursued justice to the end of her days. She was one of those Jamaicans who went to England as a child and returned as a professional to build her homeland. She returned and contributed in many ways at the University of Technology as a lecturer, as a human rights campaigner with the United Nations and in the field of legal aid.

In a journal such as this that includes ‘development’ in its title, it is important that from time to time a6ention is paid to what that word ‘development’ actually means outside of common educational practices. It is a concept that does need some focus as the Caribbean moves forward to introduce a more complex approach to our national and regional preoccupations. One relevant theme which we have not addressed before in approaching the development stance of this journal is that of the Caribbean diaspora.

Using a post-colonial lens, this paper describes the changes and constants in Jamaica’s educational system between the 19th and the early 21st century using academic literature and secondary data from the Ministry of Education. High schools initially emerged in Jamaica for the upper and middle classes only, based on the families’ income level, thus excluding children from the lower income bracket. Over time, breaking the glass ceiling for lower-income students became more possible as education included students moving from elementary to high school based on merit.

This research investigated the impact of using manipulatives on 56 Grade 5 students’ (27 male, 29 female; age 10-11 years) mathematics achievement. A quasi experimental, action research design was utilized in which the experimental group was taught selected topics from the Number strand using manipulatives during a 3-week intervention, while the control group’s instruction did not include the use of manipulatives. Data were collected using a pre- and post-test and analysed using descriptive statistics and a Mann-Whitney U test.

Formal vocational education has been available in Jamaica for more than a century. When the island became a crown colony in 1866, technical/vocational education was given a great boost, although it was not until 1896 when Kingston Technical School was established that commercial subjects were introduced. Industrial Training Centres (ITC) such as Carron Hall(1924), Knockalva, Holmwood, and Dinthill (1930s) were established to provide manual training.

Schools cannot improve without people working together... None of us no matter what our position, has the answer to the complex problems we face. The more people work together the more we have the possibility of better understanding those complex problems and acting on them in an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect. (Liebermann 1986,6) 

Examining the experiences of a sample of Jamaican teachers during that critical first year after professional training, the paper looks closely at their accounts of their classroom management style, and how they balance their own personal beliefs as well as what they learned in college with the reality of the learning environment. Interviews yielded data which suggest that those teachers with classroom experience prior to entering college were more comfortable with a democratic management style than those without this exposure.

Democratization is quickly becoming accepted as the process by which a country's education system can achieve its goals of promoting modernization and facilitating a desirable quality of life for all its citizens. In this paper, democratization is viewed as a process which can empower the education system to deliver as far as is possible the education that is required to allow all its people to cope with the global environment of which Trinidad and Tobago is a part. 

Many factors determine access to and the quality of education that a country provides for its citizenry. A major constraint is the high per capita cost of education and the capacity of the state to meet that cost. These issues are focused on from two complementary perspectives. The first part of the paper takes a historical perspective. The democratization of education in the English-speaking Caribbean territories at critical points in their history is traced, including the interplay between economic factors and educational provision.

These are challenging times for education not only from the social or economic perspective but also because we can no longer dismiss science fiction, techniques other than teachers present face-to-face systems that induce learning. Various technologies now attack some of the foundations on which our pedagogy is based.