Mottley calls for quick action to address education crisis in Caribbean

Days after The World Bank released a damning report on the Caribbean’s education sector, describing it as a sector in “crisis”, the Chairman of CARICOM, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called on her fellow Caribbean Community Leaders to act and address the crisis that is facing education.

Addressing the opening of the CARICOM Regular Meeting in Barbados on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Mottley said the region cannot continue treating education as if its business as usual.

“Our education is in shambles in the region, and the quicker we come together and coordinate the reform that is necessary for it, the better it will be, because we cannot build out this region with the old educational systems of the colonial system that are hierarchical in nature and ignore the reality”, Mottley told CARICOM and other regional and international officials, including the UN Secretary General.

The World Bank recently highlighted a number of systemic issues that are plaguing the Caribbean’s education system, calling for more financial investment and enhanced teacher support.

The World Bank’s Country Director for the Caribbean, Lilia Burunciuc, said the region is confronting an education crisis that is jeopardizing the future of the Caribbean, noting that too many education systems in the region are failing.

In its report, the World Bank noted that in 2024, only 4.9% of the students who wrote the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams, passed five or more subjects that included Mathematics and English.

The World Bank said the Mathematics pass rate of 36 percent highlights a long-standing issue in foundational learning, which continues to undermine student success and regional development.

The World Bank warned that the crisis has deep systemic roots and far-reaching consequences for economic growth, social cohesion, and crime prevention in the Caribbean.

It said to achieve lasting change, Caribbean countries must adopt a holistic and resilient approach to education reform, which includes preparing education systems to withstand external shocks, such as natural disasters and pandemics, which disproportionately affect vulnerable students.