Transforming Education : The Power of ICT Policies

Abstract

The purpose of this monograph is to review the experience of the Education For All (EFA) movement in the Caribbean at the end of the decade of the 1990s, in the context of the World Declaration and Framework for Action affirmed at Jomtien in 1990, and to identify the most challenging prospects for the future. The monograph aims to reflect upon both intended and unintended outcomes of the EFA movement in the Caribbean, as well as planned and unplanned accomplishments and deficits, and to point to some directions for the future. The genius of Jomtien was the compromise it effected between quantity and quality and between schooling and learning. This compromise was reflected in its title and sub-title: Education for All: Meeting Basic Learning Needs. EFA focused on schooling and putting every child into school, as well as on allowing every adult the opportunity to become literate. Its emphasis on all gave it a quantitative focus and mission. Meeting basic learning needs highlighted the qualitative dimension and placed the emphasis on learning. It highlighted children and adults possessed of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to be conscious and constructive members of society. This tension between schooling and learning, quantity and quality, posed different challenges to different regions of the world. By 1990, almost all Caribbean countries had put all children of primary school age into school or were very close to doing so. The quantitative challenges resided in early childhood and secondary education, while the challenge of quality was relevant to all levels of basic education. This monograph seeks to examine and explore how the Caribbean responded to the challenges posed by the World Declaration and the Framework for Action.