Caribbean – Situation Analysis

4.1Education for All (EFA) – Globally:
It is estimated that as many as 93 million of school age are currently out-of-school, and that the majority of them are females, 80% of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Further, it is emphasized that quality education remains lacking for many of the world’s children “even though it is a fundamental human right enshrined in the international commitments. From the Millennium Development Goals to the Dakar Declaration, countries have repeatedly committed themselves to achieving universal primary education and eliminating gender disparities at all levels of education by 2015.” (UNICEF – “Basic education and gender equity”).

“Poverty, geographic isolation, gender, language, ethnicity – these are some of the main obstacles blocking the road to school. They all have a common denominator: unequal opportunities”.
“An estimated 75 million children of primary school age world wide are currently out of school with partial projections suggesting that at least 29 million children will still be missing out on their right to an education in 2015. A further 776 million adults, or 16% of the world’s population, lack even basic literacy skills. Two-thirds of these are women” (The UNESCO Courier 2008 Special Issue – “Education: roads closed”).

4.2 Education for All (EFA) – The Caribbean:
“Latin American and the Caribbean stands ahead of other developing regions in Education for All. Most countries in the region have achieved universal primary education (UPE) and are witnessing a rapid expansion of both pre-primary education and secondary and tetiary. However learning achievement levels remain low by international standards. Moreover, while there is little evidence of gender disparity levels at primary level, massive underparticipation by boys exits in secondary and tertiary education.
The EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009 finds that disparities based on wealth, location, gender and disability deny millions of children a good quality education.”[Regional Overview:Latin America and the Caribbean]

4.3 Situation of Education Services for children who are blind or low vision in the Caribbean:
“Children with disabilities are among the most marginalized and least likely to go to school. Evidence from household surveys indicates that among children aged 6 to 11 the difference in primary school attendance rates between those with and without disabilities ranges from twenty-eight percentage points in Jamaica to thirty-six in Colombia and fifty-seven in Bolivia. Speeding up the progress towards UPE will require a far stronger focus on public policies facilitating access, and on political leadership to change attitudes” [Regional Overview – Latin America and the Caribbean]

Among children with disabilities, those who are blind or visually impaired are reported to be among the most vulnerable to marginalization and discrimination. They are more likely to experience poor quality education, delivered through inadequate curricula, untrained personnel and under-resourced facilities.

In 2007, Hasan Minto and Petra Van Es conducted a Clinical and Cognitive Assessment of Children in Education Programs for the Visually Impaired in Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, commissioned by CCB.
Some of the findings of the Assessment, include:
• Coverage in Guyana – 21.6%; Jamaica – 33.3%; Trinidad & Tobago – 62%;
• There was a bias towards males;
• No system of case-finding;
• Children with additional disability varied between 12% to 23%;
• Low Vision Services were not available in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago;
• Limited availability of low vision devices;
• Low uptake in Guyana of Low Vision Services by children;
• Unavailability of trained personnel to issue low vision devices;
• No systematic program for referral between Education Services and Eye Clinic.
[Report: Clinical and Cognitive Assessment of Children in Education Programs for the Visually Impaired in Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, 2007]

4.4 Human Resource Development in the Education Sector:
Human Resource Considerations:
4.4.1 Number of Teachers trained to work with children who are blind or visually impaired – by Country and number needed to achieve a ratio of 1-14:
(See Table IV – below):

4.4.2 Required Training Institutions or Programs by Country or Sub-region:
(See Table V – below):

4.4.3 Resource Centers/Resource Units and Schools by Country, District, Province, Parish or Region:
(See Table VI – below):

5. Barriers: