Discussion 1

1. Discuss at least 2 Caribbean development issues identified (400-600 words)

Caribbean Issues identified:

1. Poverty eg in Haiti, Guyana

2. Unemployment eg youth unemployment

3. Migration

4. Coping with natural disasters

5. Reducing crime

6. Massive debt increase

The first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Eric Williams was famous for his ubiquitous
quote, “The future of this nation lies in the school bags of our children”. This thought is
prevalent today and relates to the developmental issue of enhancing the quality and
effectiveness of the human resource and enabling knowledge-based growth that was
highlighted in the World Bank Report: A Time to Choose: Caribbean Development in the 21st
Century (Kathuria et al, 2005). In Trinidad and Tobago we have two initiatives that were
launched by the Government that speak to this issue and they are the Government Assistance
for Tertiary Education (GATE) program and the e-Connect And Learn (eCAL) programme. The
purpose of this discourse is not to highlight the failures of these approaches but rather to
supplement my fellow classmate’s work by sharing two examples of initiatives used by the
Government of Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (GoRTT).

I was privileged to be one of the first students to benefit from the GATE program especially as
pursuing a degree seemed like an unattainable dream. The programme afforded those
individuals without financial means a new opportunity to access higher education. According to
Ritzen (2002), although a sound primary education is necessary to increase the literacy, as well
as, numeracy skills necessary for citizens to function in society, there is also the need for a high
level of tertiary education, especially as the economy matures. With the advent of ‘free’ tertiary
education the enrollment numbers at UWI grew from 6,322 in the academic year 1997/1998 to
10,122 in 2003/2004 (Tewarie, Franklin, Hosein, 2005). With tertiary education one can tap into
global pool of information and this enables developing countries to better grasp ongoing issues
in a globalizing world. By increasing the levels of education into the tertiary sector once
increases the productivity and creativity of its people, encourages entrepreneurship as well as
the adoption and adaptation of up-to-date technologies (Ozturk, 2001).

Another example is bridging the gap between learning and technology and the eCal programme
was a government-led initiative, launched in 2010, that grants personal laptop computers to
students entering secondary school. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is now
commonplace in the modern classroom (Lawless and Pellegrino, 2007) and involves the use of
technology for the basic transfer and communication of information, or to explore and collect
information (Mohanty and Vohra, 2006). The purpose of the laptop was to be an instructional
tool, a curricular tool and a tool for research and communication with Computer-assisted
instruction, Resource-based learning, and Collaborative learning usage. While this initiative was
a progressive and innovative one in the education sector, it had many challenges mainly due to
the education system of Trinidad and Tobago being fully rooted in its colonial past (Brown and
Conrad 2007; Jules 2008). This issue of incorporating ICT into the ‘traditional’ classrooms of
Trinidad and Tobago is described by Waldron (2009, p.67) as ‘an illusion of progressiveness’. This
one-to-one initiative is now serving as a role model for other Caribbean islands but greater
research needs to be done in order to overcome challenges like lack of purposive training for
teachers, among others (Leacock and Warrican 2012).

In conclusion Caribbean countries need to invest in initiatives that encourages tertiary learning
in addition to ICT, in order to increase the efficacy of its human resource and enable
knowledge-based growth.

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