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.

Former taken-for-granted approaches to the teaching of literature and by extension the teaching of poetry in the Caribbean classroom are no longer stable. Concerns over low student achievement in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination in key areas such as poetry, create considerable debates over how teachers of English in the Caribbean should both respond to and be prepared for the teaching of poetry in the English classroom.