INFLUENCE OF EXTRA-REGIONAL SOCIETIES ON THE CARIBBEAN - EDUCATION ; i, the nexus of ribbean is offen described as the “eulual crossroads’ of the wold Cending cures of Noth Americ, Europe, Aiea, Lain America and Amerindian retentions This current pattern, although still a hierarchy, displays diverse paths to educational achievement, some coming to the fore only recently. The traditional (pre 1980) pathway was: UNIVERSITY (3-yrdegree |} SPECIALISED (Teritary) Programmes, Graduate studies) INSTITUTIONS fi ia Av LEVELS LEVELS 0" LEVELS L SIXTH FORM a t O° LEVELS: L SECONDARY SCHOOL (Forms 1 ~ 5) ¥ COMMON ENTRANCE A~ LEVELS — University of Cambridge General Ll Cerificate of Education Advanced Level Examinations PRIMARY O- LEVELS ~ University of Cambridge General SCHOOL Cerificate of Education Ordinary Level Examinations ‘SECONDARY SCHOOL: ‘Includes High, Technical, Comprehensive Schools (Basic Registration) PRIMARY SCHOOL: 1 Includes Primary and Preparatory Schools BASIC SCHOOL. The advent of alternative routes to educational achievement is, therefore, a fairly recent Phenomenon. There has been much historical evidence to support the argument that the Populace has traditionally seen academic advancement and the achievement of a “profession” as the definite means to upward social mobility and economic advancement. A student who does not become a doctor, lawyer or teacher via this rigid route was seen to have “underachieved," and relegated to the scrap heap of our evolving societies. Nettleford (1991) refers to this phenomenon as “the pre-occupation with status on the part of ambitious but misguided individuals, more concerned with what they are called than what they do, or in some ccases, with what they are paid.” What is the role of education? As a form of Human Resource development, Brizan (1991) alludes that education may be construed as part of “a process of providing people with skils. for production, self-reliance and survival.” King (1979) purports that the traditional educational (high school) system in the Caribbean was “historically a system for the middle classes,” the “ethnic minorities and the mainly light-skinned middle classes who could not afford to send their children to England,”