school offers 4 years of vocational training. It is an outgrowth of a company trade school opened in 1938 and reorganized and expanded into a regular vocational school in 1944. A training center for providing theoretical in addition to practical instruction was added in 1954.

The school accommodates about 325 students, and is divided into lower and upper divisions, each offering program of 2 years' duration. There are two lines of study-metal-technical and oil-technical. The latter is in turn divided into the two sub-categories of preparation for plant technician or laboratory technician. Entrance to the lower division program of each line of study is by examination at age 151⁄2 to 17, following completion of at least 7 years of elementary (GLO) or combined elementary and continued elementary (GLO and ULO) education, or 6 years at a MULO school. On completion of the 2-year lower division course, those in the metal technician line continue in the upper division, where they may be joined by those of age 16 to 182 who have received the diploma in one of the machine shop or metal trades in the previously mentioned 3-year vocational schools. Those in the oil-technical line completing the 2-year program of the lower division are eligible to obtain employment in the company plant. If they are among the top students of the lower division they may continue their training in the upper division, where they may be joined by those who have received the MULO-B diploma, or have completed the 3d year of the Higher Burger School program.

Both the metal-technical and the oil-technical programs of specialization include, in addition to technical subjects, some general education courses in Dutch language, mathematics, geography, social studies, health, and physiology. In the oil-technical program, physics and chemistry are also included. Those selected for the school attend as full-time students and are not regarded as employees or apprentices. They receive free tuition, as well as pocket money to help defray other expenses. Most of them accept employment in the company plant upon completion of the program. Approximately 10 percent are dropped along the way because of inability to keep up with the work or for other reasons.

In addition to the regular daytime program of the vocational school, the CPIM prvides various types of in-service training and courses for employees on an after-hours, part-time basis, in order to increase their specialist knowledge.

Teacher Training

The shortage of teachers is one of the recognized problems of the Netherlands Antilles. Practically all secondary teachers and most

vocational teachers have come from the Netherlands, as have many elementary teachers. Local education and training of teachers is in its beginning stages. There are no separate teacher-training institutions in the Antilles like the Kweekschool in the Netherlands. With the development of the three secondary schools in Curaçao, teachers for the elementary schools may pursue the Higher Burger School type C program, as discussed above, followed by 1-year of pedagogical training at the same institution. Completion of this combined program is the minimum requirement for securing a position as a qualified elementary teacher of the lowest class. Advance up the hierarchical ladder through several classes, until the top class of head teacher is reached, requires further study and examinations given by the Netherlands Antilles Education Ministry. This study is usually undertaken in evening or extension classes forming part of the general program of adult education discussed below.

These classes have also included special training for student and helping teachers who lack full education and training to become qualified teachers, but who assist qualified teachers in the classroom. A report prepared in June 1953 from official sources, for the 1955 UNESCO World Survey of Education, stated that in the Netherlands Antilles "the pupil-teacher system of training teachers prevails." 11 The UNESCO expert who assisted the Caribbean Commission in preparing for the earlier mentioned Joint Conference on Education and Small Scale Farming, held in 1954, likewise stated in his report on "Teacher Training in the Caribbean," prepared for that Conference, that "in the Netherlands Antilles there is considerable reliance upon the pupil-teacher system." 12 However, the recommendations of the 6th Session of the West Indian Conference in 1955 relating to the pupil-teacher system in the Caribbean area were among those to which the Netherlands Antilles delegation took exception, on the grounds that "the system was not known in its country." And in 1957 the Caribbean Commission noted, apparently on the basis of information received from the Netherlands Antilles Government, that the pupil-teacher system had been abolished.14

99 13

Adult Education

The Netherlands Antilles has had underway in recent years activities in adult extension and continuation classes. In 1955 it was reported by the UNESCO expert who prepared for the Caribbean

11 UNESCO, World Survey of Education (Paris, 1955), p. 465.

12 Caribbean Commission, Education in the Caribbean, p. 30.

13 Caribbean Commission, West Indian Conference, Sixth Session, 1955, p. 82.

14 Caribbean Commission, West Indian Conference, Seventh Session, 1957, Appendix II (Trinidad, 1957), p. 7.

Commission the earlier study on adult education generally, that it had been felt unnecessary in the Netherlands Antilles to organize courses for adults in basic education. For example, he noted that it was reasonable to assume that illiteracy was no longer a problem, being confined to some aged persons who showed no desire to receive literacy training and to some illiterates among imported workers. At the same time, he noted the existence of courses of education extension for young people beyond elementary school age.15 The numbers of those enrolled were limited at that time, the average being under 100 in the early years of the 1950's.16

The statistical and summary report of the Netherlands Antilles Education Ministry on education at the end of 1957 indicates an apparent expansion in this program. The program of evening classes was described as having two purposes: (1) vocational and specialized training, and (2) continued general education. In the former category, evening classes were being held, as previously noted, for student teachers for kindergartens, helping teachers for the elementary grades, regular teachers preparing for the examinations for promotion in the teaching hierarchy, and head teachers. Other courses were given in training for aircraft mechanics, electrical technicians, architects, surveyors, carpenters, customs officers, and government administrators. Teachers of both specialized and continuation evening classes were those giving similar instruction in the regular day schools of various levels and types.

15 Howes, op. cit., p. 28.

16 UNESCO, World Survey of Education, II, p. 758.

551394-60

CHAPTER X

French Areas

IN THE FRENCH CARIBBEAN Departments of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana-coequal since 1946 in legal and administrative status with the Departments of metropolitan France— education is being imparted to a population primarily African in its racial origins. Martinique and Guadeloupe are relatively small, heavily populated, tropical islands, the economies of which are dependent upon the export of sugar, rum, molasses, bananas, and pineapples. Their estimated combined population of over 500,000 in 1958, with Martinique having a little more than half the total, gave them an average density of about 520 persons to the square mile. Martinique alone had 685, one of the highest population densities in the Western Hemisphere, on an island of extremely mountainous terrain primarily agricultural in its economic base. It has, however, a heavy urban concentration in its capital and commercial center of Fort-de-France, which has about 25 percent of its total population.

By contrast to the two island Departments, French Guiana is a relatively large area almost completely undeveloped and unpopulated, except for the approximately 30,000 persons living in the coastal areas and the small numbers of native Amerindians and Bush Negroes (descendants of former escaped slaves) of the interior. French Guiana produces very little for export, though importing heavily to meet the needs of the inhabitants. Martinique and Guadeloupe, on the other hand, have a considerable export trade, though they have had an unfavorable balance of trade in recent years. All three areas are dependent upon government funds from metropolitan France to support their official budgets and services and their economies. It is generally accepted that the government revenues collected in the Caribbean Departments do not come close to meeting their costs of government, and that public services, including education, are maintained through outlays by the taxpayers of metropolitan France. One 1958 estimate was that the French Caribbean Departments were costing the Mother country the equivalent of about $25,000,000 a year.

Education in the three areas, as integral Departments of France, follows the same methods and principles as in France. The organi

zational structure, programs of study, examinations, and all other facets of the educational system are those of France. The objective is complete assimilation, insofar as possible, to the metropolitan pattern, with such limited modifications or deviations permitted as are essential in the light of local conditions and needs. Thus, as noted by the French National Commission for UNESCO, it has been the purpose to provide in the French Overseas Departments a French education on the same basis and with the same curriculums in establishments of the same categories, as in the Mother country, even though it has not been possible financially to provide full physical facilities for all types of schooling.1 In the Caribbean Departments, as in France, public education is free at all levels, and school attendance is legally compulsory between the ages of 6 and 14. This legal requirement has not been enforceable in some communities because of a lack of school facilities.

Administration and Financing of Education

The change in the status of the French Caribbean areas in 1946 to that of Departments of France had the effect of making educational administration conform in all essential respects to that of continental France. Prior to this change, education in Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana had been administered, along with other governmental functions, by the French Colonial Ministry. The full implementation of the constitutional provisions for Departmental status as applied to the administration of education has meant that since January 1, 1948, each of the Caribbean Departments has been attached to the académie, or educational region, of Bordeaux in metropolitan France and through it to the Ministry of National Education at Paris. The Recteur (Rector), or head, of the Bordeaux académie is represented in each of the French Caribbean areas by a Vice-Rector, or inspecteur d'académie (academy, or regional, inspector), usually appointed from metropolitan France, who acts as a local superintendent of schools for each of the Overseas Departments. Likewise, with the granting of Department status, the educational legislation and regulations of metropolitan France automatically became applicable to the Caribbean overseas Departments. Prior to this, legislation on education in France had to be made applicable in colonial areas by special decree, although in point of fact, the basic laws on education in metropolitan France were in force in the Caribbean areas long before 1946.2

With respect to funds for educational expenditures, the same principles apply in the French Caribbean Departments as in metropoli

1 UNESCO, World Survey of Education, II, p. 395.

2 Ibid., p. 404.