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Part I

General Considerations

The above map includes the entire area known as The Caribbean, and The British, Netherlands, and French affiliated areas, with which this shows its geographical relation to adjoining countries and territories.

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CHAPTER I

The Setting: Geographical, Cultural, Economic, and

Political

THE CARIBBEAN AREA is a region with which the United States, because of geographic proximity and economic, political, diplomatic, and strategic factors, has had close relations throughout much of its history. In a broad sense the area is usually regarded in the United States as the region immediately to the south embracing the republics of the Spanish-speaking world that fringe on and surround the Caribbean Sea. It is also generally known that certain lands under the United States flag-the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States-are located within the area. It may likewise be recognized that the French and Creolespeaking Republic of Haiti falls within its confines.

Not so generally known as being part of the Caribbean area, however, are the non-Spanish-speaking island and mainland territories which continue their cultural and political ties with the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France. It is these European affiliated Caribbean areas that we shall be considering here. Included among them are the South American mainland territories of the GuianasBritish, Dutch, and French-which lie outside but adjacent to the Caribbean area proper. Situated on the northeast Atlantic coast of South America to the east of Venezuela, they are usually placed in the Caribbean framework because of geographical proximity, psychological and cultural orientation to the Caribbean territories, and similar social, economic, and political characteristics, problems, and needs. The British affiliated Caribbean areas are the most numerous and the most widely spread of the European connected territories. Extending north and west from British Guiana, the most southeasterly of the territories, they include also certain islands of the Caribbean, most of which are now organized into the West Indies Federation, as well as the Central American mainland territory of British Honduras. The islands consist of Jamaica and Trinidad, the two largest in area and population, as well as Barbados and the Windward and Leeward Island groups in the Lesser Antilles.

The Netherlands affiliated Caribbean areas are the two political units of Surinam (Dutch Guiana) and the Netherlands Antilles. The latter includes the Netherlands Leeward Islands off the coast of

Venezuela (Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire), and the Netherlands Windward Islands east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in the Northeast Caribbean (Saba, St. Eustatius, and the Dutch part of St. Martin).

The French affiliated Caribbean areas consist of the three separate political units of French Guiana on the South American mainland, and the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe. The last named, which is really two islands, also includes for administrative purposes the island of St. Barthelmy and the French part of the island of St. Martin lying in the northern part of the island chain of the Lesser Antilles.

Despite differences in the languages, cultures, and political orientations of these areas, there are basic similarities in social, economic, political, and psychological patterns and characteristics, which in turn make for similarity in educational problems and trends. These include rapid population growth in most territories; underdeveloped economies; the recent emergence of political consciousness and selfgovernment; an increasing popular awareness of and a desire for the "good things of life," and the conviction that expanded and improved educational facilities will afford the opportunity to obtain them. It is not possible here to discuss in detail all the various factors impinging on educational problems and trends, but certain of them will be considered.

A social and cultural fact of significance is the mixed racial composition and background of the population. The great majority of the inhabitants of the area are descended from persons of African origin who were slaves until the liberation movements of the 19th century. In Trinidad, British Guiana, and Surinam, there are, in addition, important numbers of persons of East Asiatic originsdescendants of East Indians (including both Hindus and Moslems), Indonesians, and Chinese, most of whom were brought to these territories as indentured servants to meet a labor need after emancipation of the Negro slaves. In British Honduras, in addition to persons of African origin, a significant number of the population are decended from the Maya Indians. Elsewhere in the areas under discussion, indigenous American Indians are found only in the hinterlands of British Guiana and Surinam, where they form a small percentage of the population and live outside the patterns of national life. And everywhere there are, of course, a minority of persons of European origin along with a considerable number of racially mixed persons.

Although the outward manifestations of the cultural patterns of the area are European in their origin, among all non-European groups there has been retention of certain previous cultural and sociological traits, some of which have important implications for

education. For example, the weakness of family ties among those of African origin in the lower economic groups, stemming from the lack of a family system among the slaves, impedes the development of a stable home situation favorable to the education of children. Likewise, the continuance in varying degrees of languages, dialects, and linguistic usages other than the respective official languages of the region poses the problem of conducting instruction among children in a language or usage different from what many of them use at home and in their everyday conversation.

Economically, the region has historically depended upon an agriculture devoted primarily to staple crops, of which sugar and to a lesser extent bananas and citrus fruits are the most important. Accompanying the cultivation of these staples has been a great deal of subsistence agriculture, and the principal occupations of the vast majority of the population have been agriculture and the related agricultural processing industries. In recent decades, the economy has begun to be diversified and industrialized, in some territories much more than in others. Thus, the semi-arid islands of Curaçao and Aruba, in the Netherlands Leeward Islands group off the coast of Venezuela, devote themselves almost exclusively to the petroleum industry, refining crude oil brought from Venezuela. Trinidad and Jamaica, in addition to their basic agriculture, have some industrial development based on petroleum refining and bauxite, respectively; and British Guiana and Surinam are centers of bauxite mining and processing.

Notwithstanding the beginnings of economic development, the area as a whole remains one of the economically underdeveloped regions of the world, with low living standards and extremely limited government revenues. A principal barrier to educational development is, therefore, a lack of adequate personal and governmental income. Although in the case of the United Kingdom and France the mother countries have been making a considerable financial contribution to education in their respective Caribbean areas in recent years, there will probably continue to be less than adequate financing for education until the general level of the economy can be substantially raised. In these circumstances an elementary school education of approximately 8 years has been about the maximum most children have been able to attain, and far from all children have attained this much. While substantial efforts have been made, particularly since World War II, to provide expanded elementary education facilities in these areas generally, the rapidly increasing school population has also helped make for overcrowding of buildings and classrooms and a shortage of teachers. For example, in the British territories it is estimated that by 1961 the number of children of primary school age will have increased by 43 percent,

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