The speed at which technical and vocational education was being implemented in Jamaica was in response to the advocacy of industry and business to provide a workforce capable of meeting the economic development needs of the country. This trend towards strengthening technical and vocational education was further intensified with the international movement to integrate technical vocational education in the formal education system. In the 1970s, for example, the World Bank instituted as one of its portfolio strategies the development of post secondary education for training technicians.

Given the limited response to the introduction of e-books at the UWI Mona Campus Library in 2005, a survey was done with a sample of students to ascertain their awareness and level of use of e-books as well as their perceptions of them. The results showed that more than 50 per cent of the respondents were aware of the service but that there was a cultural and generational resistance to the use of e-books. A greater awareness of the provision of training appears to be critical in order to increase usage of e-books.

This research undertook a cross-sectional evaluation of students' and teachers' views on how gender influences the teaching and learning of geography. The sample comprised secondary and post-secondary educational institutions in both rural and urban settings. The research found that the influence of teachers' gender on geography is quite distinct. When the teacher was male, the subject seemed more scientific and hence more difficult. When the teacher was female, the subject required more analysis and seemed easier to female students.

A distinctive feature of the Caribbean Centre of Excellence for Teacher Training Project is its use of feedback to bring about improvements in various aspects of the work it undertakes and to guide decision making. The feedback is used both formatively and summatively in the assessment of planning and management operations, in the assessment of project inputs and in the assessment of student achievement.

This issue, like our last, offers a range of papers in areas relevant to educational concerns in the Caribbean. The focus on education is self-evident, but in this introduction I want to underscore the other mandate of this publication evident in the title, that we interrogate educational issues to propel development in our region.

This article draws on a study designed to ascertain from students how they thought their teachers, parents and they themselves could improve their reading comprehension. The suggestions made by students were classified under classroom and out of classroom processes and these in turn were divided into cognitive and non-cognitive areas.

The Caribbean is now recording the 2nd highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world, after sub-Saharan Africa. This article examines the rising incidence and prevalence of AIDS by country in the Caribbean, pointing out that Haiti and the Dominican Republic are the leading countries in terms of both numbers and rates. The article points out further that many factors including cultural practices, attitudes, norms and values, promiscuity and multiple sexual partners work together to determine the increasing incidence of AIDS in the Caribbean.

Experienced teachers tend to have an internal locus of control (LOC) orientation. This paper considers the validity and reliability of two commonly used measures of teachers' locus of control orientation for use within a Caribbean and particularly, a Jamaican, educational context.

During the closing decades of the past century the concept and practice of quality assurance have received much attention. Notwithstanding the spotlight which quality assurance is receiving however, there continues to be lack of clarity on the meaning of the term and lack of consensus on how it should be demonstrated. This paper attempts to look at what has been happening in recent times across the Commonwealth Caribbean in the area of quality assurance at the institutional, national and regional levels.