Developing a curriculum for children and youth in Jamaica, the West Indies

Abstract

The ideas and suggestions considered in this curriculum study were conceived within the wide context of the interrelationship between education, the individual, and society, with special reference to the education of children and youth growing up in the Jamaican society. The emphasis was on the necessity for education to help Jamaicans liberate themselves from inhibiting concepts, attitudes, and values inherited from the past. In order to deal with the curriculum problems attendant on the implementation of plans to make education for children between the ages of 7 and 11 compulsory by 1962, while simultaneously expanding the enrolment in post-primary schools, the study advocated the consideration of the introduction of new concepts, methods, and materials, which might increase the quality of educational experiences that Jamaican children and youth had in school. It was suggested that curriculum change would be accelerated by improvements in the preservice and inservice education of administrators and teachers