By the end of the 19th century Trinidad had four single-sex secondary schools, the earliest of which, St. Joseph’s Convent (Port-of-Spain), was a Roman Catholic Girls’ school dating from 1836. The most recent foundation was Naparima College (c. 1900), a Canadian Presbyterian secondary school in southern Trinidad, chiefly for Indians. The two main secondary schools - Queens Royal College (hereafter QRC), and St. Mary’s College of the Immaculate Conception (hereafter CIC) -- were founded in 1859 and 1863 respectively.

This book is a welcome addition to the too slowly increasing literature on the history and sociology of education in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Students and administrators will find the book invaluable for an understanding of the problems of planning education in a Caribbean territory. Professor Bacchus' main theme is the massive expansion of education facilities in Guyana, especially at the secondary level, from the mid 1940s to 1974.