In, The Challenge of Scale: Educational Development in the Small States of the Commonwealth Caribbean. Editors Kazim Bacchus and Colin Brock. 1987. Commonwealth Secretariat: London. Pp 127-139

Small size, isolation, and dependence have been themes that have been employed in discussing educational development in small states of the Commonwealth. This chapter argues that these themes are defining manifestations of the more basic condition of marginality. As such the chapter discusses the general notion of marginality and considers its implications in education in the Caribbean over the previous 40 years. It critically analyzes the quantitative increase in educational provision in the region which basically makes larger the educational systems that were inherited but leaves many of its qualitative features in place. Important region-wide projects and well as the University of the West Indies and the Caribbean Examination Council have demonstrated the value of regional cooperation. The chapter concludes with the notion that the Caribbean was at the ‘cross-roads’ with education needing to be separated from partisan and insular politics and embrace regional cooperation as an imperative.