There has been a significant breakthrough in the official political recognition, at CARICOM Heads of Government (‘HoG’) level, of the importance, value and validity of parental perspectives advocacy, at the highest national and regional political level. 

Paula-Anne Moore, in her capacity as the spearhead of national and regional parent advocacy, leading the Group of Concerned Parents of Barbados (‘GCPB’) and the Caribbean Coalition for Exam Redress (‘CCER’) since their 2025 inception, was invited, by the current CARICOM Chair Prime Minister Mottley, to make a presentation to the CARICOM Heads of Government, detailing parental concerns, with special focus CXC matters, regarding the challenges in CARICOM’s education system. Dr Grace Showan, social activist, also attended the session as a parent representative.

It is noted that CARICOM education was identified as ‘in shambles’ by Prime Minister Mottley in her opening remarks to the CARICOM Heads of Government Conference (19^th – 22^nd February 2025). Recent concerns were referenced in analysis of CARICOM’s education systems made by the World Bank, led by its Caribbean Director, Ms Lilia Burunciuc, in January and February 2025, and numerous long-standing commentary and analysis by national and regional education stakeholders, and in media editorials.

It is recognised that the complex and interrelated challenges in our national and regional educational systems obviously do not solely emanate from CXC. The home and family, sensory and neurodivergent learning challenges, community, socio-economic factors, and others often determine education success. School infrastructure, outdated curricula and budgetary constraints can impact education outcomes negatively.

 It is equally and simultaneously recognised that real education transformation cannot be truly effective, if tangible change and improvement is not also made to the governance and other components, externally within the ‘CARICOM education ecosystem’, and internal, to CXC’s operation. The components of our education systems, within the control of our governments and their institutions, must be subject to continuous scrutiny and improvement, in a coordinated regional effort, wherever feasible. 

Ms Moore’s presentation to the HoG included specific data, collated by CARICOM’s parents, students, teachers, and principals, and opinions from independent expert testing consultants including US-based Harvard-educated Barbadian Dr Michael Clarke, documenting the past 5 years of suboptimal performance by CXC in: governance, lack of focus on student fairness, clear challenges in the quality assurance in grading and exam questions, and insufficient accountability, transparency,  engagement, and communication with key education stakeholders: parents, students and teachers. It was made clear to the HoG that the current governance model, which seems to result in effective self-regulation and very limited accountability by CXC, is no longer fit for purpose.

It was noted that CXC’s existence is funded by the tax-paying citizens of CARICOM, and CXC’s raison d’etre should be, and is supposed to be, one of fairness guiding its service to the region’s children, while still maintaining the highest testing standards. Both objectives are not mutually exclusive. The current public perception is instead that CXC’s current culture manifests in a focus on its operational ease and profit.

Ms Moore further noted the 21^st Century right, in the pursuit of natural justice, of students and parents to engage directly with CXC. 

CCER confirmed that its various regional parent associations and other advocacy groups continue to pursue a more formalised CARICOM-wide association of parent advocacy bodies, in culmination of the nearly 5-year long efforts of the GCPB and the CCER. Ms Moore reiterated that both the GCPB and the CCER stand ready to collaborate with the respective CARICOM governments to make this CARICOM-wide coordination a reality, to better inform and augment respective national and regional education transformation.

We parents of CARICOM are exceedingly grateful that PM Mottley kept her Sept 2024 commitment to our region’s people that education would be on the front burner during this CARICOM HoG meeting. In so doing, we are deeply appreciative that the HoG collectively recognised the importance, value and validity of our parental perspective and 5-year long consistent constructive advocacy, as evidenced by our inclusion in such an august assembly.  

It has long been our position that parents and children’s perspectives in education planning must be included in strategic planning, decision making and implementation, thus optimising their outcomes. The vital importance of diversity of perspective, and their inclusion, in executive planning is well documented.

We parents feel vindicated, and are therefore energised to further pursue our advocacy for parents’ and children’s rights to be heard, and we look forward achieving the translation of this highest-level political recognition into tangible change and results, for the enduring benefit of CARICOM’s children. 

CARICOM is at grave risk of being insufficiently mindful of the frustration, disillusionment and disengagement of our children, due to their negative education experiences – those who need learning support, and those who are academically proficient. Our region is enduring an exponential increase in brain flight and crime, and the widening of the socioeconomic divide in education, as the privileged 1% flee public education for local private schools and boarding schools abroad. Decades post-independence, CARICOM should not be experiencing a widening of this education chasm between ‘the haves and have-nots’.

The very reputation and credibility of our CARICOM region, as part of the global community of best practice in education and testing, have themselves been tested and found wanting in recent years. As the President of the Caribbean Union of Teachers Dr Garth Anderson said in 2020: ‘COVID revealed the pre-existing comorbidities in (CARICOM’s) education’.

The time is past due to pull back from the brink of this CARICOM ‘education crisis’ and ‘shambles’ (quoting the World Bank and PM Mottley respectively). Parents must be engaged, at the strategic level, as an integral part of the remedial way forward.

It cannot be business as usual, if we are serious about education transformation, nationally and regionally.