considerably less in most, have attended the traditional secondary schools. The tendency is for the percentage to increase as Governments add to the number of "free places" and to facilities for secondary education.

Thus, qualifying examinations, other procedures, and the existence of tuition fees have been factors in the selection of students for academic secondary education. Even when a "free place" is won, it has been difficult for many parents to afford the other expenses of financing a child through the completion of secondary education. It is for this reason, including the fact that secondary education has almost invariably been urban education and has sometimes entailed the necessity of living away from home for those in the larger territories such as Jamaica, that there are the beginnings of a trend to have government scholarships include funds for these additional expenses where necessary.

The objective of academic secondary schools has traditionally been preparation for one or more of the British system certificate examinations, generally regarded as measuring the level and nature of secondary school achievement. Usually these have been the examinations for the Cambridge Oversea School Certificate and Higher School Certificate, or more recently in some British West Indian territories the General Certificate of Education at both Ordinary and Advanced Levels. Achievement on these examinations has been the prime factor in considering eligibility for entrance into British universities and the University College of the West Indies. More will be said about these examinations and certificates later in this Chapter.

Broadening and Growth

Despite the long existing gap between elementary and secondary education, there are, as previously noted, the beginnings of a trend to break down this rigid division and to regard them as a two-stage organization of education below the higher education level. Thus, a recent policy statement of the Government of British Guiana indicates that it regards education as a continuous process in two stages -primary and secondary. Most long-range planning for education in the area is on the basis that elementary and secondary education are parts of the same process. The 10-Year National Development Plan for Jamaica proceeds on the assumption that the "ideal and theoretically perfect system" envisages "free education for all children between the ages of 5 and 17 years" in one integrated process and system. While it realizes that this goal will be impossible of

7 Luke, Sir Stephen, Comptroller for Development and Welfare in the West Indies, Development and Welfare in the West Indies, 1957 (United Kingdom Colonial Office, 1958),

achievement for some time to come, its long-range program of preuniversity education is organized under the four broad headings of Infant Education (ages 5-6); Primary Education (ages 7-11); PostPrimary Education (age 11 and over); and Further Education (various forms of community education for adults and adolescents). The educational planning of other territories is based on similar assumptions and includes similar organizational patterns, although there are, of course, differences from territory to territory.8

The principal dynamics in this process, are the urgent necessity and the popular demand for expansion of secondary educational facilities. In the words of Dr. Richard D'Aeth, formerly Professor of Education at the University College of the West Indies,

* the tremendous political and social changes now taking place are producing a fast growing demand for secondary education not only in levels of the community that can afford fees, but also from children at elementary schools who seek the hallmark and the better opportunity for advancement that secondary education offers. Education continues to provide the main ladder of social mobility; and the rising tide of consciousness is matched by the increasing need for people with secondary education, if present and future plans for economic development are to be effective.9

The demand for academic secondary education is rising much faster, however, than facilities can be expanded. Statistically the chance of being able to attend the popularly preferred secondary grammar school is small. This is so despite the trend, under strong public pressure, toward more scholarships and more government and grantaided secondary schools to enable children to make this switch from elementary schools at the age of 11 to 12.

Developing patterns of post-primary or secondary education provide, therefore, for additional and varied types of schools and programs, and for closer relationships between elementary and secondary level schools. In Jamaica, for example, in conformity with the longrange plan of pre-university education previously outlined, the developing pattern of post-primary education includes three main types of schools: (a) Secondary schools of the traditional academic type; (b) other post-primary schools, or post-primary departments attached or specially related to all-age elementary schools; and (c) Secondary Technical and Vocational Schools and Training Centres. Other territories exhibit in the main, the same general division of types of schools in their planning. The programs of academic secondary schools have already been referred to and more will be said about them in the next section. Secondary technical education is also discussed elsewhere.

8 A National Plan for Jamaica, 1957–1967, p. 38–39. Teacher Training Conference Report, p. 52.

With respect to educational facilities falling into category (b) above, these are usually designed to give a combined academic and "practical" education to the 12 to 15 age bracket on a nonselective basis. In addition to provision for education for this age grouping in all-age elementary schools, in 1959 Jamaica's separate "Senior Primary Schools" and Trinidad's planned "Central" and secondary modern schools fell into this pattern. For approximately the same age level, Barbados had in 1958-59 four secondary modern schools and Antigua a similar type institution (called, however, a postprimary school), in which academic and "practical" subjects, including home economics, woodwork, metal work, and home gardening, are combined in the curriculum.

It appears that there may be the beginning of a trend for the secondary modern type of school to prepare certain students for the examinations for the Oversea School Certificate or General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level), as is already happening, for example, in Antigua. Some specialists have expressed the view that the establishment of such a trend would be a mistake and would destroy the distinctive purpose of the secondary modern school as an institution for those of moderate ability. While there is growing support for this and similar types of schools among certain educational and other leaders, there are some who object to them and to the name "secondary modern schools." These include both the educational traditionalists who favor secondary academic education, and laymen and parents who believe this type of school has less prestige and does not lead to the best white-collar positions.

Curriculum Trends in Academic Schools

As given in secondary grammar schools, academic education itself shows evidences of a modernizing trend in respect to curriculum, teaching materials, and examinations. In most such secondary schools, there are now two or more principal programs of study, including a "classical" program and a "modern" program emphasizing science, mathematics, and modern languages. The "modernizing” trend, including also some "practical" subjects, is evident everywhere, though in some territories it has not proceeded as far as in others, and there are secondary school educators, as well as parents, who believe there is no substitute for a "classical" education of English language and literature, Latin or Greek, French, English history, Scripture, and traditional mathematics. Governments and government officials concerned with education are among those interested in the modernizing trend and, generally speaking, favor more utilitarian subjects.

As regards specific subjects, Spanish has been added to the curriculum in many secondary schools, particularly in those territories where for reasons of commerce, industry, and travel, contact with the nearby Spanish-speaking areas has been established. For example, in Jamaica Spanish has largely replaced French as a modern language for study.10 In Antigua with fewer direct contacts with Spanish-speaking neighbors and also a lack of teachers of this language, Spanish was not offered in 1958-59 at the two principal secondary grammar schools, for boys and girls, respectively. In Trinidad both Spanish and French are being taught. It was the sense of the First Conference of Heads of Secondary Schools in the British Caribbean (also attended by territorial Directors of Education and Education Officers), which was held at the University College of the West Indies in 1955, that

it would be a pity to eliminate one of these languages in favour of the other in the British West Indies. Those who give more stress to the common French-English heritage and modern literary and artistic values will favour French. Those who look more at the practical side and to the New World will prefer Spanish. The ideal is to teach both ** *.11 A further broadening of the secondary curriculum to make it more responsive to modern and West Indian interests and needs is the addition of West Indian history and geography to courses in some secondary schools. Again, a principal difficulty here has been a lack of suitable textbooks and teachers with a good knowledge of the subject. It was recognized at the 1955 Conference on Secondary Education that this would take some time to overcome, and 3 years later, despite general awareness of this situation, the need remained. The 1955 Conference observed it was symptomatic of the situation that the secondary school which had been teaching West Indian history the longest had recently given it up.12 It might be expected that the birth of British West Indian Federation and the movement toward commonwealth status would have important results for the teaching of West Indian social studies generally.

Offerings and facilities in science subjects are increasing in secondary schools, though instruction is handicapped in many schools by a lack of adequately trained teachers and equipped laboratories, despite the large and increasing demands for professional personnel requiring training. An American Fulbright program grantee was welcomed as a science teacher at the Antigua Secondary Grammar School in a recent year. It was especially emphasized at the aforementioned 1955 Conference of Secondary School Heads that physics,

19 Jamaica Education Department, Annual Report, 1954, p. 4.

11 H. R. X. D'Aeth, Secondary Schools in the British Caribbean (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1956), p. 100.

12 Ibid., p. 90-91.

one of the most recent subjects to be added to the curriculum in the British West Indies, should be taught more widely in secondary schools. In some cases arrangements are made for schools without laboratory and teaching facilities for science subjects to use such facilities at other schools. Thus, students from the Girls' Grammar School at Antigua take science subjects at the territory's secondary school for boys.

There are also the beginnings of instruction in a few secondary schools in Jamaica and elsewhere in the area in agricultural science, a subject offered on the certificate examinations. In addition, some educators and some of those concerned with the development of the area have encouraged not only the introduction of agricultural science, but also the teaching of science generally, in its special relation to its rural and agricultural aspects.13 Here, as in other specialized subjects of the "modern" or "practical" curriculum, a principal problem is the acute shortage of qualified teachers.

There has also been the introduction in a few academic secondary schools of a technical element into the regular curriculum. This has taken place, for example, in certain of the secondary schools in Barbados and British Guiana, where some of the students attend the respective local Technical Institutes to take subjects such as mechanical drawing, machine shop, woodwork, metal work, and in some cases science where this is not offered in the secondary school. These subjects can then be offered on the General Certificate of Education examinations. Such courses are most likely to be taken in conjunction with a "modern" or scientific biased program in the secondary school, often by those who are thinking of going on to some form of higher technical education. The Development Programs of Jamaica and Trinidad also look to the eventual establishment of a technical "stream" in academic secondary schools.

Likewise for girls, some academic secondary schools have introduced home economics and commercial subjects into the curriculum. The matter of adapting the secondary school curriculum to special needs of girls received attention at the 1955 Conference on Secondary Education, in view of the fact that about as many girls as boys attend secondary schools in most territories. The discussion revealed a pressing need and agreement on the desirability of more teaching in home economics in its broadest sense, and considerable progress has been made since then. With respect to the further introduction of commercial subjects into the curriculum, opinions were divided, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the majority of girls from secondary schools now seek and find employment in business offices.

13 Luke, op. cit., p. 54-55.