For over 25 years, Cuba has awarded Vincentian students’ full scholarships to study medicine. Yet, despite this long-standing opportunity, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) remains heavily dependent on Cuban medical professionals for specialised healthcare services. The Cuban Medical Brigade, which has provided over 95,000 medical interventions and performed more than 2,000 surgical procedures, continues to play a vital role in SVG’s healthcare system. At the Modern Medical Complex and Diagnostic Centre in Georgetown, 40% of the medical staff are Cubans. Why, then, is SVG unable to fill these positions with its own trained professionals? The answer lies in systemic gatekeeping practices within the nation’s education system—practices rooted in colonial-era exclusivity and reinforced by modern socioeconomic barriers.
The Colonial Legacy and Educational Inequities
Education in SVG has long been shaped by a colonial structure that prioritised access for the privileged few. Historically, the top-ranking schools were established primarily for expatriates and the local elite. These institutions, which remain prestigious today, were designed to cater to a specific demographic, often determined by race, socioeconomic status, and religious affiliation. While explicit racial barriers may no longer exist, the legacy of exclusion persists through mechanisms that marginalise students from poorer backgrounds.
Moreover, these elite secondary schools are concentrated in Kingstown, creating an inherent disadvantage for students from rural areas and the Grenadines. The financial burden of transportation, housing, and school-related expenses places additional pressure on families, limiting access to high-quality education for those outside the capital. Additionally, the CPEA examination system selects the top 250 male and female students for entry into these prestigious institutions, further cementing disparities by ensuring that only the highest academic performers—often from more advantaged backgrounds—gain entry and access to high-quality teaching.
Restrictive Academic Practices and the Science Barrier
The structure of secondary education in SVG perpetuates disparities by restricting subject access. Sciences—critical for medical and engineering careers—are often limited to one or two classrooms per school. This results in a maximum of about 200 students across all top-tier institutions being able to pursue science subjects annually. Given that some of these students may opt for other career paths or relocate abroad, the number of locally trained professionals in these fields remains inadequate.
Additionally, streaming and ranking systems reinforce exclusionary practices. Students who do not immediately excel are often labelled as failures rather than provided with interventions to address their learning gaps. Instead of encouraging mastery through multiple revisions—an approach used globally in skill-based professions—teachers often limit the number of SBA drafts students can submit, effectively capping their potential grades. This counterproductive practice discourages struggling students while failing to push high-achieving students to excel beyond current educational standards.
Socioeconomic Barriers and Underutilized Scholarships
Beyond the classroom, financial barriers continue to impede access to educational opportunities. While Cuba has consistently provided medical scholarships, along with other scholarship programs—such as India’s ICCR Scholarship Scheme—these programmes remain grossly underutilised. Many students who would benefit from these opportunities are ill-prepared due to the restrictive nature of SVG’s education system, which fails to adequately support students in high-demand fields such as science, business, and technology.
The Need for Systemic Change
The current education system in SVG is structured to benefit a select few while limiting overall national advancement. As other Caribbean nations like Guyana push students toward completing 20+ CSEC subjects and up to 10 CAPE subjects at younger ages, SVG continues to gatekeep fields essential for economic and technological progress.
To break this cycle, reforms must be implemented:
We should enhance access to science, technology, and business subjects in all secondary schools by using technology and asynchronous teaching methods. Thus, rather than categorising students as either Science or Business students, we should encourage the development of individualised career pathways that recognise each student’s unique abilities. This approach should emphasise interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary skill sets, fostering a systems-thinking perspective on learning and professional development.
We need to eliminate restrictive ranking and streaming practices that marginalise students. Assessment scores should reflect areas needing improvement rather than serve as tools for exclusion. We should focus on the CPEA examination, which tests the four literacies necessary to be established at the pre-secondary level. Instead of using these results to commend students who gain admission to top-ranking prestigious schools, assessment scores should be utilized to create Individualised Education Plans (IEPs). This is currently the only form of national screening available to students. For those who do not meet the competency criteria, specialised learning should be provided to address their special educational needs (SEN) and prepare them for secondary and higher education.
Students should be encouraged to view the CPEA as a personal measure of their academic strengths and preparedness rather than being ranked, labelled, and stigmatised.
We need to provide more support for struggling students and teachers who lack the training and resources to offer specialised help. This can be achieved through intervention programs that utilise technology to provide effective feedback. Additionally, administrators and parents must encourage teachers to accept multiple drafts of school-based assessments (SBA) and implement grade-forgiveness policies across all subjects. This approach promotes mastery-based learning and helps students improve their skills.
Though the provisions of financial aid and transportation are available for those from poor economic backgrounds, these safety nets should be mandatory to reduce stigma through systematic and structural support for all students from rural communities so each student can access high-quality education in Kingstown if they so choose. However, the most effective approach would be to bring high-quality teaching to ALL schools. Again, this can be facilitated with technology and creative thinking.
The outdated notion that students must achieve perfection on their first attempt is a disservice to national development. Education should foster growth, resilience, and opportunity—not exclusion. Until SVG recognises and dismantles these institutional barriers, it will continue facing professional shortages, underutilised scholarship opportunities, and an education system that serves only a privileged few rather than the nation as a whole. Remember, “We have a country to build, if we don’t do it, who will? “
