Trinidad and Tobago

In 1999 the adult literacy rate for Trinidad and Tobago was about 94 percent—95.4 percent for men 15 years of age or older and 91.7 percent for adult women. The Ministry of Education—comprised of an elaborate system of divisions, commissions, offices, centers, and units—is the principal government organ charged with overseeing the planning and implementation of education policies and practices in Trinidad and Tobago. The Ministry of Planning and Development and the Ministry of Finance have been charged since 1991 with administering university level education in the country and provisioning the National Institute for Higher Education, Research, Science, and Technology. Other government ministries, such as the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs and the Ministry of Social and Community Development, play their part as well in certain education and training initiatives related to children and youth.

English is the official language of instruction in Trinidad and Tobago's public schools to facilitate communication across the country's several language groups. Education is compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 12. Primary schooling, where children 5 to 11 years old are enrolled, includes 2 preparatory ("infant") grades and 5 "standard" grades, with children starting at age 4 or 5 and some 4 year olds entering directly into the first grade. Although the government covers most of the tuition costs of primary education, many primary students have problems attending due to their parents' inability to pay the costs of transportation, lunches, uniforms, textbooks, and school supplies. The structure of the secondary school system was under revision at the start of the new millennium, but traditionally secondary schooling has been divided into 2 cycles: a first cycle lasting 5 years for children and youth 11 to 16 years of age, for which graduates receive the Caribbean Examinations Council Secondary Education Certificate, and a second cycle lasting 2 years, whose graduates receive the General Certificate of Education Advanced "A" Level or the new Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination, which is replacing the GCE "A" levels.

Secondary education can be provided either as traditional academic instruction or as a more diversified curriculum including technical and vocational studies. Efforts to reform the secondary education system to make schooling more enticing, palatable, and useful to students, especially those from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds, have been directed toward adding more experientially based courses and classes. Training students in technical and vocational skills is also seen as a way of helping students realize the practical value of education and of making learning a more positive experience with greater payoffs in the end.

Higher education is provided through a variety of institutions, including the University of the West Indies (UWI), the St. Augustine campus, the National Institute for Higher Education, Research, Science, and Technology (NIHERST), technical colleges, teachers' colleges, and a range of private, tertiary institutions. The academic year lasts from September to July, and the entire month of August is a time of vacation.

Good potential exists for developing educational programs to be made available as distance learning through the mass media in Trinidad and Tobago, which had an estimated 425,000 televisions (on average, 1 for every 3 inhabitants) and 680,000 radios (nearly 1 for every 2 inhabitants) in 1997. The country had 2 AM radio stations and 10 FM stations in 1998 and 4 television-broadcast stations operating in the country in 1997. Educational technology is also improving and can become even more important as the nation develops its service sector and creates new employment opportunities for those in the high technology field. In 1999 there were 5 Internet service providers (ISPs) in Trinidad and Tobago, 28.2 Internet hosts for every 10,000 people, and 54.2 personal computers for every 1,000 people.