The participation of high school students in extra-curricular activities is an issue of increasing interest in much of the developed world. There is a growing consensus that youth participation in such activities has beneficial effects on many facets of development. Using data collected from four countries in the Eastern Caribbean, this paper, based on a UNICEF sponsored project, seeks to fill this gap. The study found that student involvement in extra-curricular activities was relatively high in most of the countries, but male participation overwhelmingly took the form of sports.

Classrooms in schools in the Caribbean are typically described as teacher­centred with students as passive, dependent learners. Teacher training programmes year after year grapple with the task of transforming this scenario, but seemingly with little success. How do we make teaching more learner centred? How do we enable students to become more independent learners and to feel that their success or failure is under their own control? How do we prepare young people for adult civic involvement? These questions are at the centre of some of the articles in this volume.