Caribbean countries have embraced the Education for All (EFA) goals identified at the 2000 World Education Forum in Dakar and have incorporated them into national education reform strategies in order to improve access, equity and scope in the provision of education to their citizens. In particular, Universal Secondary Education (USE) was identified as a critical pillar of economic development and empowerment of the region. Although the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) had, since 1991, identified the need for a subregional strategy for education reform which included expansion of secondary schooling, few countries had taken this intent very far prior to the impetus provided by the signing of the Dakar Framework. Saint Lucia introduced USE in 2006; however, as is often the case in the sub-region, there is little documented information on any aspect of the implementation of this policy and its impact on schools.

Published in: Canada International Conference on Education, 2017

• Date of Conference: 26-29 June, 2017
• DOI: 10.2053/CICE.2017.0162
• Electronic ISBN: 978-1-908320-83-4
• Conference Location: University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada