7 - Education

Summary

A nation's education system is said to reflect its character of production, which some consider predominant and basic to societal change. Nevertheless, the education system can help to determine the character of production and move an economy to a higher level of development. But to transform the character of production and move an economy to a higher level of development, education must perform a “technological” and not a “ceremonial” function (Ayers [1944] 1962, xxiii). For example, some Southeast Asian governments realized that knowledge skills were transforming production processes, that they were becoming the basis for growth and competitive advantage, and that lowskilled production processes would keep their economies at an international economic disadvantage and slow economic transformation. They focused on the “technological” function of education by placing greater emphasis on STEM subjects than on other subjects in the education system. Accordingly, they were able to create a pool of knowledge skills that could be used to help develop knowledge-intensive production techniques and accelerate the economic transformation of their economies. Consequently, their nations have become important centers of scientific research and development and they now produce and export high-tech products and services to First World nations. CARICOM nations, on the other hand, never placed much emphasis on STEM subjects in their education system—a product of their colonial experience—and thus they could not create an adequate supply of knowledge skills that could help transition their economies from low-skilled to highskilled activities. And the absence of an adequate pool of knowledge skills has often been cited as one reason CARICOM nations remain at a low level of economic development.

Education in Colonial Caribbean

Throughout much of Caribbean colonization, when production consisted almost exclusively of commodities for export to metropolitan nations, colonial governments, dominated by white planters and merchants, considered the education of the masses a low priority. This neglect might have been due to a perennial fear that educating the enslaved people increased the chances of insurrection against the social and economic system. It might also have reflected the fact that the plantation did not require a literate labor force to function and thus instruction of the masses was considered an unnecessary expense.