Voices and Visions of Education Heroes, Leaders, and Elders: A History of Education in the British Virgin Islands

By Charles H Wheatley OBE PhD

From the birth of a formal education system through the end of slavery in the early nineteenth century to today’s struggles to incorporate technology into classrooms, this book delivers a detailed history of schooling in the British Virgin Islands.

Charles H. Wheatley, OBE, PhD, a lifelong educator and school administrator, has been practicing his craft since 1955 when the first Education Act was passed in the Virgin Islands Legislature. He puts the classroom to life on the printed page.

The author highlights the struggles and triumphs of the leaders, elders, and heroes in the growth of the educational system, focusing on the period from 1834 to 2016.

On this journey, you will hear various voices of British Virgin Islanders as they fought for better educational opportunities for the children of the territory—and you’ll see faces of change as society evolved.

Each chapter addresses issues in education from a historical perspective, with the characteristics of each historical period clarifying the roots from which our educational growth started.

Trace the path of the British Virgin Islands’ development through the prism of the educational strides its made while responding to massive demographic, social, and technolgical change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532073120

Charles H Wheatley OBE PhD

Charles H. Wheatley, OBE, PhD, began his career in education as a teacher in February 1955 at East End Methodist School. He served as a head teacher of North Sound Methodist School, West End Methodist School, Cane Garden Bay Methodist School, East End Methodist School, and Road Town Elementary School. He was the first local principal of the British Virgin Islands High School before serving as chief education officer for seven years, followed by four years as permanent secretary for the Ministry of Health, Education, and Welfare. He left that position to serve as president of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College for fourteen years, where he is president emeritus and chairs the board of governors.

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Copyright © 2019 Charles H. Wheatley, OBE, PhD.

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Contents

List of Figures

List of Acronyms

List of Voices

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 The Beginnings of Formal Education

Chapter 3 The Growth of Elementary Education

Chapter 4 Transition from Church Management to Government Management

Chapter 5 Primary Education after 1959

Chapter 6 Establishment and Growth of Secondary Education

Chapter 7 The Teaching Profession in the British Virgin Islands

Chapter 8 Development of Technical Vocational Education and Training

Chapter 9 Postsecondary Education

Chapter 10 Future Challenges for Education

The afterword

Sources

Appendix 1. Chronology of Education in the British Virgin Islands

Appendix 2. Comments by the Manager of Methodist Schools on the Recent Decisions concerning the New School at Road Town, Tortola, January 1947

Appendix 3. Appendix 3. Memorandum on Education, 31 January 1948: Proposals for Future Organization of Elementary Education in the British Virgin Islands, by Commissioner J. A. C. Cruikshank

Appendix 4. Address Given in Honour of Miss Enid Scatliffe, Chief Education Officer, on Her Retirement, 9 October 1981, by Charles Wheatley, Her Successor as Chief Education Officer

Appendix 5. Recommendations by the 1988 Education Review Committee in the British Virgin Islands

List of Figures

Figure 1 Map of the British Virgin Islands

Figure 2 Poem by Jennie Wheatley referring to her interpretation of names of beaches in the British Virgin Islands

Figure 3 Day school schedule, 1872

Figure 4 Sunday school schedule, 1872

Figure 5 Day school schedule, 1875

Figure 6 Sunday school schedule, 1875

Figure 7 Day school schedule, 1879

Figure 8 Sunday school schedule, 1879

Figure 9 Day school schedule, 1881

Figure 10 Sunday school schedule, 1881

Figure 11 Day school attendance, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1879, 1881

Figure 12 Value of BVI imports and exports, 1912–1921

Figure 13 Average school attendance, 1940

Figure 14 Standard Seven examination results, 1946

Figure 15 Standard Seven examination results, 1954–1957

Figure 16 Primary schoolteachers employed, 1971–2014

Figure 17 Annual enrolment in primary education, 1970–2014

Figure 18 Primary Five examination results, 1970–2014

Figure 19 Postprimary examination results, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970

Figure 20 Annual enrolment in public secondary education, 1971–2014

Figure 21 Students graduating from public high school, 1972–2015

Figure 22 Secondary schoolteachers employed, 1972–2014

Figure 23 CXC mathematics: General results, 1979–2014

Figure 24 CXC mathematics: Basic results, 1979–2009

Figure 25 CXC English A: General results, 1979–2014

Figure 26 CXC English A: Basic results, 1979–2008

Figure 27 CXC geography: General results, 1979–2014

Figure 28 CXC geography: Basic results, 1979–2006

Figure 29 CXC Caribbean history: General results, 1979–2014

Figure 30 CXC Caribbean history: Basic results, 1979–2005

Figure 31 Profile of a high school graduate

Figure 32 Ranking education among eight items of BVI culture by district

Figure 33 ABRSM examination results, 1983–2013

Figure 34 Students graduating abroad by field of study, 2005, 2010, 2015

Figure 35 Students graduating by overseas institutions 2005, 2010, 2015

Figure 36 HLSCC enrolment by semester, 1990–2015

Figure 37 HLSCC graduates, 1994–2014

Figure 38 Annual expenditure on postsecondary education, 1979–2014

Figure 39 Percentage of territorial recurrent budget allocated to preprimary, primary, and postsecondary education, 2000–2014

Figure 40 Percentage of Territorial recurrent budget allocated to postsecondary education, 2000–2014

List of Acronyms

ABRSM Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music

ACE Adult and Continuing Education

BFEC Bregado Flax Educational Centre

BVI British Virgin Islands

BVIHS British Virgin Islands High School

CAPE Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination

CARICOM Caribbean Community

CCSLS Caribbean Certificate of Secondary-Level Competence

CSEC Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate

CVQ Caribbean Vocational Qualification

CXC Caribbean Examinations Council

EFA Education for All

EU European Union

FSI Financial Services Institute

GCE General Certificate of Education

GIS Government Information Services

HLSCC H. Lavity Stoutt Community College

HRD Human Resources Development

ICT Information and Communication Technology

ILO International Labour Organization

MEC Ministry of Education and Culture

NGO Nongovernmental Organization

OECS Organization of Eastern Caribbean States

OJT On-the-Job Training

SIDS Small Island Development States

TVET Technical Vocational Education and Training

UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

UVI University of the Virgin Islands

UWI University of the West Indies

VISTS Virgin Islands School of Technical Studies

List of Voices

Voice 1. Fanny Waters, Methodist class leader: Early Education of Blacks by the Methodist Church, 1829

Voice 2. T. E. Ryan, British Virgin Islands educator, head teacher, supervising teacher in the 1940s: Education for Improvement of Community Life

Voice 3. George Truman, visitor to the British Virgin Islands in 1840: Education Highlights, 1840

Voice 4. Iva Varlack, an octogenarian citizen of East End, Tortola: A Typical School Day

Voice 5. C. S. Elmes, educator in the 1940s: Teachers and the Government

Voice 6. Willard Wheatley, head teacher, supervisor of education, minister of education, chief minister: Primary Education in the British Virgin Islands, Now and Then

Voice 7. Jennie Wheatley, head teacher, assistant principal of British Virgin Islands High School, director of Virgin Islands studies, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College: Poem vividly summarizing the early experiences of children in a Methodist elementary school

Voice 8. Stanley Nibbs, head teacher, teacher of TVET: Recollection on Education Beginning in the Early Nineteenth Century

Voice 9. Raymond Penn, head teacher: The Light Upon the Hill

Voice 10. Howard Reginald Penn, member of the legislature, chairman of the board of education 1942–1968, education activist in the 1940s and 1950s: Excerpts from the Memoirs of H. R. Penn

Voice 11. Ivan Dawson, member of the legislature, minister of government, local presbyter of the Methodist Church: Excerpts from the Memoirs of Ivan Dawson, A Brief Outline of a Humble Life

Voice 12. Alred Frett, minister of education, 1995–1997: Education Week Message, 1996

Voice 13. The Reply of the Administrator to the Managers of Church School, 10 November 1965

Voice 14. Minister of Education’s Message to the Annual Principals’ Meeting, 29 August 2003

Voice 15. H. Lavity Stoutt, chief minister: Address to the Territory on the State of Education, 22 May 1973

Voice 16. Louis Walters, head teacher, minister of health, education, and welfare: Message for Education Week 1988

Voice 17. Dr Norwell Harrigan, British Virgin Islands educational leader: The Battle for Secondary Education

Voice 18. C. S. Elmes: The Community Welcomes the New Educational Leader, Virgin Islands Official Bulletin, September 1942

Voice 19. Hon. R. T. O’Neal, Civil Servant, Minister of Education, Premier, B.V. Is. Education Week 1983 Address.

Voice 20. Leslie Malone, Member of Legislative Council, Transportation Subsidy for Students.

Voice 21. Enid Scatliffe, chief education officer: The Growth of Secondary Education

Voice 22. Andrea Norman: Speech by Valedictorian, Class of 1972, to the Graduates of British Virgin Islands High School

Voice 23. Ruth E. Thomas, educator in the United States Virgin Islands: Address to Graduates of the Class of 1982, British Virgin Islands High School.

Voice 24. Cyril B. Romney, educator, civil servant, and chief minister, British Virgin Islands

Voice 25. Dr Pearl Varlack, educator in the British Virgin Islands and professor of education, University of the Virgin Islands: Challenge and Change: The Awakening of a People, 27 November 1992

Voice 26. Hon. Eileene Parsons, minister of education, 1997–2000: Message of Encouragement at the Start of the 1997–1998 School Year

Voice 26. H. Lavity Stoutt, chief minister: Address to H. Lavity Stoutt Community College on Campus upon the Opening of the Administration Building

Voice 27. H. Lavity Stoutt, chief minister: Our Tomorrow Begins Today

Voice 28: Hon. H. Lavity Stoutt: Opening Address at the Inaugural Meeting of the Board of Governors at the Reef House, Prospect Reef Hotel, 10 March 1989, 9.30 a.m.

Voice 29. Hon. Myron V. Walwyn: Address to the Administrators of the Ministry of Education and Culture, January 2013

Foreword

In a society which quite correctly expects education to serve a useful purpose, history is indispensable. History is essential to individuals and to society; it helps us understand people and societies and thus helps us understand our own lives. How do we appreciate what we have and where we are in time if we do not understand our history? History serves as our laboratory and our data, and stories from the past form our evidence as we figure out why our complex communities behave the way they do; it helps us understand change and the responses of the society in which we live.

Voices and Visions of Education Heroes, Leaders, and Elders: A History of Education in the British Virgin Islands is a piece of work which will be instrumental in helping readers to get a good grasp of how the education system developed. Sharing a love of history as well as a love of education, I have learnt much from Dr Wheatley over the many years of our friendship and working relationship. Having worked at every level of the education system in the Virgin Islands as well as having been a student in the system, Dr Charles Wheatley sits in a unique position to present this story.

Wheatley takes us through the education system from the nineteenth century to about 2014, giving us an idea of how the British Virgin Islands evolved and how its people developed and thus prepared for changes taking place locally and internationally. The book relates the history of education under the supervision of the church and takes us on a journey of various political and economic changes in the Virgin Islands which obviously led to changes in the education system. In the early days we saw major absenteeism from school as children either helped their parents on the farm or went fishing. We see schools with untrained teachers and a system totally devoid of input from the community. As we go through the centuries to the present day, we see the leaders of the day bring about changes in legislation to allow for a more democratic and equitable system, which in turn leads to more schools being built, teachers being trained, curricula changing to suit the local economy, and an endeavour to integrate the use of available technologies.

As we try to figure out why something happened—for example, a shift in financial services, a war in the Middle East, a shift in political administration, or a change in the education system, or whatever it might be—we must look to the factors that took shape earlier. Only through history can we begin to comprehend the factors which led to change, and only through history can we understand what elements of an institution or society persist despite change. Voices and Vision of Education Heroes, Leaders, and Elders is an intriguing journey which puts the history of education in the Virgin Islands into perspective and brings about an understanding of how the education system developed and what brought us to where we are today. If you don’t have time to read the whole book, then rethink your decision! It provides a wealth of information. Take the journey, understand the struggles of educators over the years, analyse the peaks and valleys of the course taken, and in the final analysis from the evidence presented understand how the society we live in came to be.

Marcia Potter, PhD

Permanent Secretary (Deputy Chair, CXC)

Ministry of Education and Culture

Government of the Virgin Islands

Preface

My first experiences in the British Virgin Islands education system occurred in 1943 during World War II, in the East End Methodist School. I remember walking briskly alongside my mother to register with other 5- and 6-year-old contemporaries. My mother had shared with me her ten-year stint as a student in the same school, and I had attended divine worship and Sunday school for several years in the same church building. Now I was about to be initiated into a new school family that would have lasting positive effects on my life. My mind was pondering daily about the war news that I heard the adults discussing. I remember the names of Churchill, Hitler, and Mussolini and tried to understand the war stories. This was the condition of my mind when I joined that school family at East End.

My ten years as a student in the school were colourful, fruitful, and rewarding. Best of all, I received an education which laid the foundation on which I could build my sixty years of service in the education system. I graduated from that school in 1953 and started teaching as a pupil teacher in 1955. One of the features of the education system that struck me forcefully was the paucity of published information about the system. This revelation motivated me to begin collecting information from senior citizens like my paternal grandfather, Charles G. Wheatley, who was born in 1875, and my paternal grandmother, Cornelia G. Wheatley, who was born in 1879. I collected reports about education and any written information that was available, with the hope of writing a history of education in the British Virgin Islands. As I worked across the Territory in various schools, the desire became stronger.

The system did not grow very much during the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Most of the growth in education took place after the restoration of the legislative council in 1950. The foundational Education Act in the British Virgin Islands was passed into law in 1955, the same year when I started teaching. I have been an eyewitness to all the changes in education since 1955 and was actually involved in almost all of the major changes. For example I was involved in the change from the elementary school in 1958 to the primary school and the postprimary school; in the introduction of the primary school leaving examination (1958); and in the postprimary school leaving examination (1960). I also led the introduction of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) examinations in 1972. The first written examinations were held in 1979. I assisted with the introduction of the high school leaving certificate examination in 1972 and the new high school diploma in 2017. I participated in the establishment of secondary education on Virgin Gorda and Anegada and of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC). Therefore, as a pupil teacher, assistant teacher, primary school principal, high school principal, chief education officer, permanent secretary for education, college president, and chairman of the board of governors (HLSCC), I was able to evaluate the needs for a history of education from many levels of education and many points of view. It is with humility that I report that a substantial amount of the information in this work is a testimony to my professional life in the education system. All information is supported by official documents (reports, circulars, policies, speeches, addresses, interviews) to enable the reader to verify any statement that I have made.

It was a gruelling experience to find many of these supporting documents, as the government’s records were not carefully and systematically preserved. This was my greatest drawback in writing this book. I hope that the final product will be useful to the people of the Territory and beyond, particularly students of education and teachers, so that they can appreciate the tears, sweat, struggles, triumphs, successes, and failures of our forebears.

Acknowledgements

First and foremost I acknowledge the divine inspiration and guidance I received during this writing journey. I am also indebted to a large number of persons for their contributions to my life in general and to my professional growth specifically, which enabled me to write this book. My mother, the late Marie Trophena Durante-Wheatley, and my father, the late Alturo Wheatley, were my first teachers, friends, and mentors. My paternal grandmother and grandfather shared their experiences of what school was like in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. My wife and best friend and sometimes coach, Jennie Naomi Smith-Wheatley, was a thorn in my flesh, needling me every now and then to conclude this work. Her support, along with the support of my three sons, Ludwis, Lloyd, and Leon, kept me going even when I felt like giving up. Special thanks to Lloyd for his technical support.

I appreciate and cherish the support of my siblings, Eva, William, Edris, Cecilia, Joseph, Walterdin, Sonia, Lucita, and the late Vashti and Marilyn. My adopted daughter, Helen Durante Seymour, has been a source of inspiration. I cherish the inspirations that my godchildren MacFred, Allington, Lisbert, Neville, Cornell, Lydia, Colleen, Clint, and Barry shared with me. When I was 8 years old, Eleanor Potter, a senior citizen (now deceased), placed her hand on my head and prayed for me because I had volunteered to help her with one of three packages with which she was struggling. This courtesy has had an indelible effect on my life.

Other influential women who inspired me in one way or another are Lillian Wheatley (my uncle’s wife), Helen Frett, Rosita Davies, Leah Smith (my mother-in-law), Alicia Penn, Soufrona Fahie, and Violet Frett, all friends of my mother. Other women cared for me when I worked in various parts of the Territory, namely Adina Rhymer and Ura George of North Sound, Miriam Romney of West End, Elsa Rhymer of Cane Garden Bay, and Soufrona Pickering, Anita Smith, and Daisy Durante of Road Town. My loving aunts, Florence Durante, Minerva Durante, Ina Durante, and Nora Greenaway, and uncles, Emile, Willard, Ernest Wheatley, and Orville, Charles, Wilburne, Alvin, and Warren Durante, encouraged me with their love.

There are men who shared their life experiences which helped to motivate me: Garnet Wheatley, Benjamin A. Romney, Benjamin B. Romney, Reginald Rhymer, Arturo George, Cecil Rhymer, Ivan Dawson, Rodulph Hodge, H. Lavity Stoutt, Maxwell Lettsome, Edward Frett, and Rev H. C. Dixon. Colleagues whose influences I will always remember include Elmore Stoutt, Roy Harrigan, Gracia Stevens, Lynden Smith, Leoteal Hodge, Eugenie Glasgow, Yvonne Dawson, Christine Hodge, Neville Pole, Joseph Harrigan, Karl Dawson, Michael O’Neal, Judith Vanterpool, Marcia Potter, Connie George, Lavon Chalwell-Brewley, Louis Walters, Lucia Walters, Colleen Cohen, the late Norwell Harrigan, Pearl Varlack, Enid Scatliffe, Gwendolyn Rhymer, Lyra Liburd, Winston Rhymer, Stanley Gordon, Enis Adams, Gilbert Tyrell, Calvin Hodge, and Doreen Hodge. I am also fortunate for the influence of special personal and family friends—Kedric Pickering, Irad Potter, Myron Walwyn, Leon Rhymer, Nervin Wheatley, Roosevelt Smith, Ralph and Edris O’Neal, and Brian Seymour. Last in this category but not least is the late D. R. B. Grant of Jamaica, my mentor and my supervisor when I worked for the University of the West Indies in a teacher education programme.

I am indebted to the following persons who willingly reviewed the manuscript and offered very useful advice for how to improve it:

• Mrs Jennie Wheatley

• Dr Marcia Potter

• Dr Luvern Chalwell-Brewley

• Mrs Eileene Parsons

• Dr Christine Hodge

• Mrs Suzan Greenaway

• Hon. Dr Kedrick Pickering

• Hon. Myron Walwyn

• Mr Elmore Stoutt

• Mr Lloyd H. Wheatley

Mr Junior Daniel worked faithfully on typesetting this publication and provided me with some images. I thank him for his dedicated service. I also wish to thank Mr Dean Greenaway for providing most of the images and Dr Angel Smith for sharing some documents with me.

Finally, I thank all my coworkers and students of sixty-plus years. They have inspired me in many ways to publish this book.

CHAPTER

1

Introduction

The British Virgin Islands, an archipelago consisting of fifty islands, islets, cays, and rocks, is referred to as a small state, ministate, or microstate and is situated sixty miles east of Puerto Rico. It is one of the Overseas Territories of Great Britain and shares Pillsbury Sound with its nearest neighbour, the US Virgin Islands. Both the British Virgin Islands and US Virgin Islands are referred to as one socioeconomic group separated by two different flags. The British Virgin Islands (BVI) conducts business in an interdependent global community. In this community the metropolitan influences of the colonizing country of Great Britain have left the Territory with a legacy of colonialism, which has been incorporated into the culture of the BVI. This legacy is reflected in the names of the islands as well as in places in the islands. Many of the names refer to activities in the historical development of the Territory (see Figure 2) and the map of the British Virgin Islands (see Figure 1).

Another significant area of Territorial importance where this legacy is still alive and touches the life of every individual living in the British Virgin Islands is the education system. This education legacy has influenced the foundations of our education system and has coloured its historical growth during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, continuing into the twenty-first century. Since the beginning of the latter half of the twentieth century, elements of this legacy have been influenced and redefined by other imported traits by way of immigration from over one hundred countries. These influences have modified the culture of the Territory. The changes arising from these influences have challenged and continue to challenge providers of education. As the education system becomes more inclusive and diverse, the challenges, both quantitative and qualitative, continue to increase.

These challenges were seen in the education journeys of Afro-Caribbean British Virgin Islanders before their ancestors were torn from their African roots and forced on a journey to the British Virgin Islands. The environment in the ships on which they travelled across the Atlantic Ocean was inhospitable, hostile, brutal, unsympathetic, demeaning, and unhealthy. The survivors of that journey landed in the Virgin Islands with their indigenous African experiences coloured by their experiences from the cruel crossing of the Atlantic. This was their state of mind when they entered into a life of misery and hardship on the slave plantations. The plantation life was designed to peel away whatever little dignity of their lives was left after that terrible ordeal travelling to the British Virgin Islands. However, their misery was always tempered with hope. They hoped for better days, for a better life. Many of them sought that better life through physical strength by refusing to comply with their masters or to be controlled by their masters’ savage treatment. Others looked for the better day through peaceful, cooperative means of increasing or improving their intellectual propensities because they realized real power comes from within the heart and mind of the individual.

In an effort to help these individuals to develop their minds, improve their self-image, and heighten that hope for a better day, the Anglican and Methodist churches responded to this glimmer of hope by providing basic educational opportunities for this enslaved population. This was the beginning of the journey of formal education for British Virgin Islanders. All of these providers arrived in the British Virgin Islands fresh from the United Kingdom and began to transplant the characteristics of what would become a legacy. This is the journey that I set out to travel through within the pages of this book. On this journey I will tell of some of education’s struggles and triumphs throughout the years. I will show how the descendants of our enslaved forebears moved education from misery in the alleged bird sanctuary to today’s educational advancement in Nature’s Little Secret, Paradise, and the Sailing Capital of the World.

On this journey you will hear various voices of British Virgin Islanders as they fought for better educational opportunities for the children of the Territory. You will see many faces of change as British Virgin Islanders labour under the heavy burdens of life as British Virgin Islands society evolved during the latter half of the nineteenth century, through the twentieth century, and into the early years of the twenty-first century. The period which the book covers is about 275 years (1738–2014). The information on the early years is very sparse indeed, limiting the insights into those early years. Each chapter of the book will address issues in education from a historical perspective. The characteristics of each historical period will help to clarify the roots from which our educational growth started.

I hope my readers will see the history of education as one of the journeys of our people’s development and growth and not merely as a record of events. It tells us how changes have been made to widen and deepen the educational experiences in equipping students to meet the changing and expanding needs of the economy, to respond to the rapid demographic changes, and to incorporate the use of technological advances in their work and their daily lives. It is my hope that this book will help you to understand how well the Territory has been able to meet the challenges in preparing students adequately for life outside the classroom. The range of changes will take us on a journey from the days of the slate to today, the age of the iPad.

Figure 1 Map of the British Virgin Islands.

Figure%2001.jpg

Figure 2 Poem by Jennie Wheatley referring to her interpretation of names of beaches in the British Virgin Islands.

Playing in the Sand

What’s in a name?

Across the bays

the magical names

a fairyland reveals.

Did bays call out

to christening

men,

Name me! Name me! Name me?

Long Bay is as plain

as Brandywine is drunk.

What’s devilish about

Devils Bay?

Whose blunder is Blunder Bay?

What cow was wrecked on Cow Wreck Bay?

The wives thrown out on Throw Way Wife Bay,

they must be moaning still.

What jokes must pass

between these bays,

when Crooks Bay says to Smuggler’s Cove,

"Whose deeds were worse

—your sins or mine?"

Saddle Bay, Table Bay,

how extraordinary dull!

Give me such names

as Manchineel,

whose fruits make

meddlers cry.

Mangrove Bay,

no guessing there.

Gravel Bay and Ballast Bay,

your duties are clear as day.

Lower, Batson,

Baughers, Fat Hogs,

Muskmelon Bay.

Who named you?

God only knows!

The changes in the Territory’s education system, particularly those changes during the decades following the 1950s, were all designed to enhance the future and release the power of the individual potentials of the citizens of the BVI. These changes can be classified as:

1.   organizational changes,

2.   administrative changes, or

3.   curricula changes.

The following two accounts are examples of changes in which I was involved, one dealing with curricula change and the other dealing with organizational change.

During my tenure as principal of the British Virgin Islands High School (BVIHS), 1972–1980, the school developed an exchange programme with Grant MacEwan Community College and East Glenn Composite High School in Alberta, Canada, during the years 1977–1980. Students from Canada spent their summers in the BVI conducting marine research. While in the BVI, they were hosted by the BVI High School. In return BVIHS students were hosted by Grant MacEwan Community College/East Glenn Composite High School, Edmonton, Alberta, for specified periods to carry out studies related to their social studies programme. At the end of this project, the BVI High School was given the opportunity to choose a curriculum area for assistance. Grant MacEwan Community College and East Glenn Composite High School would finance the project. At that time BVIHS was struggling to develop a music programme. I opted for a highly qualified music educator who could help establish this music programme. This request was approved by the minister of education, Hon. R. T. O’Neal, without delay. After the request was granted, Mr Murray Hodges took up appointment as music director at the BVI High School in 1980.

Figure 33 shows the results of his work as reflected in students’ performance on the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music graded instrumental examinations. He organized the BVI High School band, which became famous throughout the eastern Caribbean Islands, as the band visited many of those islands to perform concerts. Today hundreds of young adults have been beneficiaries of this decision. The education system can boast of a vibrant music programme which has produced highly qualified musicians to carry on the work begun by Murray Hodges. This curriculum change has served the British Virgin Islands extremely well and is one of the most successful stories in curricula changes in the history of education in this Territory.

The organizational change that I am referring to was made in 2014 and was referred to as reorganizing schooling in twelve grades. This change was long overdue. It enabled the average students to complete their studies satisfactorily and the above-average students to be challenged by more-advanced work. This was not the first attempt to introduce such a change, as will be seen in the following discussion. The introduction of this change also shows the difficulties administrators have faced amid the education system when they attempted to introduce changes.

When I was principal of BVIHS a large number of my students benefitted from six years of schooling at the secondary level. The official organization provided for five years. The Education Act of 1977 made provisions for students to remain in school until their 19th birthdays if there were good reasons for doing so. The students who fell into this category were under 19 years of age. During this pilot project, the students who completed all or most of their studies at the end of the fifth year were enrolled in advanced subject offerings by the Cambridge General Certificate Examination (GCE) examining body. This examination was equivalent to the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), which the current students study. After this project had operated successfully for several years, I made a proposal to government in 1977 to make it official by reorganizing the years of schooling into twelve grades. The proposal was rejected. After I was promoted to chief education officer, I made another attempt to get the government to reorganize the years of schooling into twelve grades. Again, for a second time, the proposal was rejected.

With the changes in leadership in education, the sixth year was forced out of the system and the emphasis was placed on graduating students as early as possible. With that emphasis also came some slippages in the quality