The complete abolition of slavery throughout the British empire in 1838 carried with it profound implications for the maintenance of order, stability and economic viability in those colonies where social and economic  structures had been largely supported by slave labour. The coercive laws, the repressive police actions, and the barbaric punitive measures that had been instituted to demoralise and control the slave population could not,  after 1838, legally be used to hold together the fabric of a free society.

Barriteau (1998, 187) proposes a theoretical framework which, she purports, can be used to examine how the concept of gender and gender systems operate within the cultural, social and political economy of states. She further indicates that a broader intention was to generate a gendered analytical model, which could be applied to studying a wide range of social and economic phenomena inherent in Caribbean and other societies.

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.

It has often been suggested that lower social-class children are poor in their lang­uage abilities, and are in this respect deprived or disadvantaged. A suggestion contrary to this is here put forward; it is shown, by a comparison of language usage in upper and lower-social-class Jamaican children, that the two social-class extremes have different styles (formats) of communication, but that the two styles (formats) are equal in their capabilities. 

This study sought to determine whether there are significant gender and school type differences in the value that Jamaican secondary school students attach to education. Data was collected from 368 students from nine secondary schools and analysed using descriptive statistics, and independent sample T-tests. The results revealed that the students valued education for instrumental purposes and their value of education was moderately low. There were significant gender and school type differences in the value they attached to education.