The paper reports results of research on the effects of streaming on boys and girls in secondary schools in Jamaica. The study found that girls were more represented in high stream classes, while boys were more represented in low stream classes. Streaming affected academic achievement, students' experiences of school practices such as being beaten or insulted, and students' sense of alienation from school. There were gender differences in all responses, with low stream boys most likely to do poorly academically and to experience negative school practices.

Within a context of increasing economic hardship for post-colonial societies, many Caribbean women suffer gender-based economic, political and social disadvantages which put them in a stressful and precarious situation. This paper explores how women in the Region are challenging the difficulties of their position by cultural work and through groups striving for the development of a feminist political literacy.

This paper pressents guidelines for conducting a gender analysis within the formal educational system. The need to reach beyond indicators which can be readily obtained from population census data and to explore, in depth, the actual process of education, and the differential consequences of this process for female and male students is emphasised.

Barbados has as one of its major challenges the reduction of unemployment to insignificant levels. It is believed that a major challenge to this high unemployment stems from having too many unskilled people for too few unskilled jobs. The days when preferential markets and quotas were used to determine areas of economic endeavour and employment in Caribbean countries are being upturned. In fact, Barbados has over the last fifteen years done best in areas in which there were no preferential markets or quotas.

An examination of social and economic conditions in Barbados in the early 20th century reveals a high infant mortality rate, indicates neglect of the health of children and reflects the need for an attack on poverty. The paper argues that a number of poverty-related factors affected school attendance, including malnutrition. Although health concerns were drawn to the attention of authorities, positive action such as nutrition intervention for school children was undertaken by voluntary agencies.

This paper examines the teaching of African history in Barbadian schools with reference to an experiment in a single school in the 1970s, the current requirements of the C.X.C history syllabus, and a proposal to introduce African Studies into the curriculum. The paper affirms that any system of teaching on the themes of race, culture and identity has to comprehend the dialogue between the past and the present. It concludes that the African Studies proposal portrays continuities of the earlier efforts but offers a greater opportunity to expand knowledge of Africa.

This paper reports on an investigation involving grade 7 students from three different types of secondary schools in Jamaica, using the ROSE integrated science curriculum. The relationships between school type and grade 7 students' knowledge of science content, acquisition of science process skills and attitude to science are presented and discussed. The study showed that there were significant relationships between school type and students' performance in all three areas on both the pre-tests and post-tests.

Over the twenty-five years of its existence (1973-98) the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has become the main provider of assessment and certification at the secondary level of education for Commonwealth Caribbean countries other than the Bahamas. 
The CXC examinations can therefore serve as an indicacor of the coverage and effectiveness of secondary education in most Commonwealth Caribbean countries. 

"I'm deeply honoured to be the first American President to hold a summit with Caribbean heads of Government here in the Caribbean. But its high time -America, after all is a Caribbean nation. Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands lie at the heart of this region. The bonds of commerce among us and the bonds binding our people are strong ... the point I wish to make is that this is not a meeting between Caribbean nations and the United States, but rather a meeting among Caribbean nations including the United States".

This article is concerned with the viability of current educational provision in the overseas French departement of Martinique. It contains a critical examination of the French educational system and its implementation overseas. It seeks to illuminate in this context the relationship between educational provision, culturally meaningful learning, and socio-economic participation.