Different from the prevalence of constitutionally guaranteed free and compulsory education in Latin America, the emphasis is placed on safeguards for freedom in education in this region.

There is no common policy on education and the models of education differ from country to country. Constitutionally guaranteed freedom of education supports parallel systems of private and public, religious and secular education. This dividing line routinely coincides with for-fee and free schools.

The common law, based on the English legal system and now reinforced by the influence of US law, is widespread in the Caribbean and prioritizes constitutional guarantees of freedom to provide education by religious communities or private entrepreneurs.

Education is seen primarily as a parental responsibility and constitutional guarantees of religious and economic freedom offer choice. Because education is generally not free, choice is determined by the family’s purchasing power. Because choice is exercised at one’s own cost, the poor do not have any choice; children can only go to school if it is free.

Education as a free public service is less prevalent than in Latin America but, still, the majority of countries have such a guarantee, at least according to the law. However, charges are levied even when such nominally free education exists in the majority of countries.

The Caribbean has been affected by the trend to privatize financial responsibility for education as has been the case in much as the rest of the world. This trend has re­inforced the model of making parents financially responsible for educating their children. In countries where education was defined as a public responsibility and the government obliged to ensure free education, contrary governmental policies have impeded the universalization of education and undermined the rule of law.

Different from other regions, budgetary allocations for education in the Caribbean are relatively high, with the regional average being 5.6% of the GDP, slightly under the UNESCO recommended 6%. Although more than half of the countries in the region have exceeded that minimum, there is concern for children in Haîti where there are hardly any public services left, and no statistics available on education. In the neighbouring

Dominican Republic, 2.4% of the GDP is allocated to education, hardly enough to cover the country’s own children let alone to deal with the exodus of Haîtian children who need to be educated. As a consequence, poverty-based exclusion from education is widespread. To add to the dilemma is the fact that the Caribbean has the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world second only to Africa. Most infections occur amongst the young. There is also a visible gender gap of vulnerability to HIV/AIDS with girls and young women at a risk which is three or six times higher than that for boys and men.

This further reinforces the need for all-encompassing education which is free in all different meanings of this word.

Constitutional guarantees of free
and for-fee education in the Caribbean