An Era of escalating but largely unresolved problems'. Examine this assessment of Trinidad and Tobago during the period 1900 to 1962, with respect to the issue off education.

In the Post World War 1 years, there was a massive increase in school enrollment. As the wartime boom provided funding for school building programs, the oil and sugar industries recognized the need for an educated population and According To Carl Campbell, they supported the education expansion policy of the government.

In the Post World Two period, priority was placed on expansion of school's and in 1948 a sum of $425,342 was set aside for a program of rebuilding, extension and repairs to schools. Enrolment increased in Secondary schools from 4,765 in 1946 to 6,109 in 1952,including the building of three new secondary schools, The College of St. Phillip and St. James, St Augustine Girls High School, and Holy Faith Convent Government School.

In the 20th century the governments' attitude to education had not altered much, since the 19th century only after 1950, did we see a genuine regard for the education system. The government were generally uninterested and in some respects hostile to the idea of mass education inn the 19th century. Education was viewed not a right and inextricably bound up with the upper class. Thus by 1900, a large proportion of school age population received no form of education, those who did attended a primary institution, endured bad physical conditions and a poor levels of education. Secondary education was closed to all but the wealthy, with the exception of a few scholarship students of the schooling system. The expansion of the secondary school grew out of the implications, of the expansion of the primary school enrollment. The demand for secondary school education grew and the number of state aided schools increased from 3 in 1900 to 8 in 1938.

However by the mid 20th century the problem of cost was eliminated in secondary school education as The Honorable Prime Minster Dr. Eric Williams who adopted an aggressive policy toward the nation's education program. And in 1960 endorsed a policy of free education for all. This came 15 years after the colony had introduced free primary school education.

The imperial government had viewed education as a method of maintaining the status quo, and unavoidable evil. However, the 20th century reflected the social and political consequences to this equation. Education became linked to the grave social and political problems in society and it was obvious that reform would have deep implications for the economy. The changes in the 20th century needed to facilitate changes in the education system to meet the need of the changing society.

The Moyne Commission of 1937 recognized the need for reform of the education system in Trinidad and Tobago as early as 1941, they realized that the society was changing and there was a need to modify the policy of the colonial government. When their recommendations were revealed in 1941 they put forward two recommendations, which might have effected, major adjustments in the education system. They recommended that the government, not the churches should have control of the appointment and transfer of teachers in denominational schools and Junior Secondary Schools for the ages 12-15, should be established. However, neither of these changes was carried out until the independent government issued the Concordat in 1960. This document place the finally decision of the appointment, removal and transfer of  teachers in the handsof the Ministry of Education.

Perhaps if this issue had beed tackled at the point in time of the Moyne Commission Recommendations, the  tensions that escalated between the denominational school system and the government schools would not have escalated  in the 20th century and the issued of the church and state rivalry would have been subdued much earlier.

Increasing educational expenditure was viewed as suspicious by government at the turn of the 20th century. This situation was exasperated by the depressed state of the sugar industry in Trinidad. Chronic insecurity in markets and fluctuating income was followed by a reduction in educational spending. Joseph Chamberlain attempted to reduce the expenditure on primary education from $39,00 to $29,0004. But it was protested against by the Catholic Archbishop and the Anglican Archdeacon on the grounds that it would led to a closure of schools and between theses years educational spending made up 6.5% of the colonies expenditure .5

The colonial period of the 20th century saw an escalating in the demand for primary school facilities, to accommodate the growing population but funding remained a vital aspect of the problems of the education system.

There was the problem of who was responsible for the cost of education. The falling sugar prices in the 20th century saw the reduction of the education budget. However, the rise of the cocoa industry resulted in leeway in educational expenditure and by the end of the Second World War there was increase in spending and the expansion in the secondary system in Trinidad. Educational expenditure was viewed as the responsibility of the parent to pay for schooling fees in government schools. However, as the century progressed the government slowly began to assume more responsibility for education. In 1945, there was free primary school for all thus making the system more accessible, but the expansion in the primary school population resulted in the need for a more Secondary schools. This led to problem in funding of secondary education, it was not until 1961 that free education was issued at the level of the Secondary System. Thereby, eliminating the exclusivity of secondary education that had characterized the first half of the 20th century.

The Marriott/Mayhew Report 1931 to 1932 proposed a program of expansion, in the second quarter of the 20th century of the schooling system. This report was important development in an attempt to reform the system as it proved to be ineffective. They recommended a, Central Training College for 200 trainee teachers at the cost of about $17,640 for staff salaries. Again, the report made no recommendations for compulsory education of the basis that it was too expensive. They recommended the amalgamation of schools, of different denominations under joint board of management, accordingly no school would receive government aid unless it had 200 or more children. . Districts where the existing number of schools was reduced were Arouca, New Grant, Indian Walk, St.Madeline, Mayaro and Mason Hall and Roxborough in Tobago. The dual system was continued and widened to accommodate non-Christian, that is Hindu and Muslim denominational schools.

By 1939, the dual system was in existence for two generations but it was characterized by tensions and contradictions. Another problem that escalated during the colonial era was the direction of the curriculum. By the 1920' and 1930's the relevancy of the curriculum was being questioned by an emerging nationalist movement. The types of textbooks used and the subject taught were left to the discretion and finances of the various school authorities. However, in 1935 under the Director of education J.V. Cutteridge, he prescribed a uniform primary school curriculum.

        This New syllabus consisted of historical heroes of King William, to the slave trader Walter Raleigh. Trinidad students were to learn about the Roots of Shakespeare and Shelly .The focus of the curriculum was not relevant to the realties of a colonial society.

        By the end of the 1930's, there was mounting dissatisfaction with the Cutterigde curriculum, especially on the part of denominations and the emerging nationalist movement. Cutteridge's curriculum was viewed as being overly designed to reproduce a "skilled working class," that itself wanted mobility.

        There was an attempt to reform the curriculum and his supporter Marryiat were proposing not classical studies for secondary schools, but an agriculture based curriculum which itself bought sharp criticism. This was viewed by the population as an attempt to making the children into estate workers and the majorities were searching for education to be an agent of social mobility.         

The Agricultural education incentive was introduced but it raised much opposition. At this point rather than be a mechanism of control, education became an unwitting accomplice to change. Education in Agriculture was an attempt to mould the students into, educated agriculturist would be able to ensure the growth of the sugar and cocoa industries but the implementation of agricultural education was severely flawed. According to a report by the director of education in 1922,"agriculture was tacked on to the system of education already being followed ,which was being taught from books with little or no reference  to the child's environment and experience.6"This situation raised much problems as the system was introduced and the subject was taught from English textbooks with reference to Faunae's agriculture little was taught on tropical agriculture so the application of the theories study was non existence. In addition, the stigma tacked to the agricultural profession was intense therefore; it was not studied with the purposes of implementation.

        To add this tension, following the Moyne Commission recommendations the imperial planning authority called for a Colonial Development and Welfare Department to be set up in the Caribbean ,to administer the spending of a British grant  for the social and economic development of the West Indies. The Colonial Development and Welfare ambitiously set out to  rebuild West Indian society .If this agency had its way  ,the system of education  in Trained and Tobago  would have been drastically recast. Mr. S.A. Hammond, education adviser to that Colonial Development and Welfare, recommended that little or no funds should be spent on traditional grammar school type of education7. He favored a radical relaxing of the education system and aspired to use education to transform social conditions he saw education 's power as an agent of social change. A change that could insulate people from the chronic failure of their export oriented economies.

        To Hammond, the foundation of a good education was in the conservation and the good use of the land by which people lived. This would encouraged a stable home, a stable family and economy and self sustenance. He centered his idea on the Agricultural education, by the fact that West Indian government, including that of Trinidad could not affect the recurrent cost of expanding which was modeled on the English System. In addition, there was no social demand among the people for agricultural based programs of development. However, he faced starch opposition from the Roman Catholic Church.

        The criticism that the curriculum was not geared toward the needs of the society was raised in regards to the Secondary School educational program. According to Carl Campbell from the early 20th century there was a need for the secondary school syllabus to meet the more practical needs of those students who were not going on to University. He claims that that whole society has been entrenched in the Cambridge Examination Syndrome with it emphasis on academic subjects and an orientation to foreign culture. The establishment of the model schools helped to cater for this but it was diverted along to the way to the English model.

        This deficiency in the curriculum was especially noticeable during the Second World War with the American Presence at the Naval Base in Chagaramus. The construction of the base called for a highly skilled labour force. One that Trinidad did not contain. the evidence of the technical and vocational adult education and the construction of a number of night schools during this period emphasizes the point. That the current school curriculum did not cater for the mass of the population that would not be moving on to tertiary level education.

        In the later half of the 1940's, there were signs of a connection being forged between the state of the education system and the striving of various nationalists. The movement toward self-government was tied up with a greater need for educational provision, in all areas. In 1954, the curriculum established 20 years before remained operational. It was found to be irrelevant for a soon to be independent society .In the political climate of the 1950's the education system was viewed as a foreign entity in a country moving towards independence.

Language was perhaps was one of the most pervasive problems of the early 20th century, but reduced in prominence by the 1950' and 1960's due to the prevalence of the English language as the main idiom in the British Caribbean. According Carl Campbell in the 1920's and 1930's the major threat to the spread of the English Language was the bid of certain Hindus and Muslims to have their own Hindi and Urdi speaking schools but this threat never materialized even after the Hindu and Muslim schools became a reality in the 1950's; when there was 51 primary schools existing with Hindu and Muslim bases8. By 1960 the English language had been cemented as the accepted language of the colony. However in the early 20th the problem of language was pertinent, up to 1917 there was a constant flow of Indian immigrants who did not understand the language. There was a need for teachers trained in Hindi to teach at these schools at the government and denominational schools that Indian children attended.

        During the period after the Second World War, different groups within society sought to establish their own educational program. This resulted in different sections of the society clamoring for the limited resources of the government for funding. Each group attempted to purport their own interests and this escalated an already complex system of education. It adding impetus to the tension of the education system as the government was making moves to consolidate the administration of the education system. New groups were seeking to establish their own institutions under their specific realms of influence. This undermined the government education policy.

The problem that characterized the escalating of tensions in the 20th century was the constant pulling and tugging of the denominational, state rivalry. The establishment of the dual system did not change this fact. The 19th century denominational rivalry was based on religious convention but in the 20th century the tension escalated between the church and the state.

Throughout the 20th century, the denominational school continued to expand both in the primary and secondary levels by 1950 though the shift was focused on Secondary schools. But in the period 1939-1955 the problem of government control over the appointment, dismissal and promotion of teachers continued to plague the system of education .As the government had no jurisdiction in denominational schools. Under the director of education, Patrick Robert efforts were made to evoke legislation to make it law for government control over teacher appointment, dismissal and promotion but he was meet with strong opposition by denominational groups9.

In the period following WW2, the expansion of the denominational education program faces difficulties. A number of Christian schools faced difficulties in their education activity and resulted in the consolidation of 11 Moravian schools in Tobago by the government. However, the established churches continued their expansion into the Secondary school arena during the later 20th century10.

Therefore in the period 1946 to 1962, tensions between the denominations and the government escalated but the focus of tension was shifted to the Secondary School arena. The dual system persisted however the pattern of incremental growth in the authority of government continued from the 1920's to the 1950's. The persons responsible for this trend before the World War 2 were the directors of education. Nevertheless, during and after the world war certain constitutional changes worked to decrease the power of the various heads of department and increased the power of the elected members of the legislative council.

Between the period, 1946 to 1955,  the education policy of the colony was shifter from senior civil  servants to elected politicians. During the period the problems of teachers was sought to be deal with. In fact, the Cutteridge code of 1935 was reviewed and there was an upgrade of salaries, the erection of teacher cottages equal pay for male and female teachers, pension rights on the same scale as civil servants. Since the government was responsibility for 75% of teacher pay under the dual system these reforms where meet with little channeled but denominations. However, they continued to clash on the idea of religious instruction.

Under the tutorship of the Prime Minster of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Eric William the church and state rivalry intensified. The church publicized him as an atheist who disregarded religious education. However the Prime Minster's, aim was to create a society of intellects that would carry the nations future in their book bags and he believed in a sectarian system of education. Throughout the 1950's, the tensions between the government and the church escalated as the government attempted to channel the education system under their portfolio and reduce the denominational input into the education system.

However, by 1960 a compromise has arisen between the church and the state that governed the nature of the relationship between the denominational assisted schools and the government. This document is referred to as the Concordat of 1960, which was ratified by the New Education Ordinance.

The concordat prescribed the guidelines of property whereby the property and control of all denominational primary and secondary schools would be assured. Whereby the denominational board would have a option to object to educational materials. In regards to religious education it stated that, the religion of a particular denomination would be taught by only teachers belonging to that faith, and in government schools religious education would take place during the allocated period on the time table. Each denominational group through their accredited representatives would be allowed to instruct the students affiliated with their denominations. It also stated that students attending schools of denominations not of their own faith would not be compelled to take part in the religious exercise or lessons of denominations. It also right to appoint promote, transfer, or dismiss teachers rested solely with the Public Service Commission.

With regards to secondary schooling outlined that the governing bodies of Denominational secondary schools would be the responsibility of the administration of the schools however these schools will continue to qualify for government aid. It also state that the principals of assisted schools will make available 50% of the first form entry available to those who qualify based on passing the Common Entrance Examination. The other 20% will be allocated as the schools principal sees fit once it is in accordance with the passage of the Common Entrance Examination. However, the entrance to First form would be under the control of the Monster of education. The ministry retained the right to disciplinary action, appointment dismissal, and promotion of teacher. Concerning the training of teachers would be under government training, under the concordat no new denominational training colleges would be allowed to be established without the explicit permission of the government.

Tobago's situation was very similar to that of Trinidad but Tobago has always suffered the impunity of being in the background to issues regarding the system of education in Trinidad and Tobago. However, the islands small population allowed for the establishment of one Secondary school to be sufficient to support the needs of the island. Also in each community there was a primary school, the schools in the Tobago, championed by various denominational groups suffered the same problems of the Trinidad schools, dilapidated conditions in some instance their were incidents of overcrowding in areas like Charlotville Methodist Church and Des Vignes Road Moravian School.

Tobago had established the first coeducational Secondary institute in 1925,it curriculum much like those of Trinidad was modeled against the English Grammar School Model. In terms of expansion of the schooling system the numbers of primary schools did not increase in the 1930's because of the fact that the population remained sufficiently stagnant, the number of schools in Tobago was the same in 1962 as it was in 1938. However during World War Two, much like the situation in Trinidad the enrollment in Bishops High School in Tobago tripled reaching 228 students in 1946.And there was call for a new school building on a new site due to the conditions of the school.

However, by 1962 with a new nationalist government in control  of Trinidad and Tobago and the freeing of the shackles of British colonialism the government by the Concordat of 1960 was able to subdue the escalating problems between the church and the state. It should be noted that the curriculum based on the English Grammar schools continued, however the government attempted to buff this, with the setting up of Secondary Modern schools in the which allowed for a syllabus based on vocational training. It should also be noted that this was one of the recommendations of the Moyne Commission of 1937.

The period 1900 to 1962 represented an escalation of the problems within the education system of Trinidad and Tobago. Education, was viewed as and agent of social change and was a pertinent issue throughout the period. The education system during this period was marked by intense, rivalry between the government and the state, and increases in secondary school expansion to facilitate the growth in population and the needs of a changing society. The earlier half of the 20th century saw the problems of the 19th century spill over in to the 20th century. As there was a need for increased primary education, a change in the curriculum, the language deficit especially concerning the French and the Indian population. The period also illustrated the changing nature of the society and in the inability of the existing educational system to bridge the gap. The numerous reform incentives and additions to the system represented the inability of the system to function, under it existing structure. The period 1900-1962 illustrated the flaws in the education system of Trinidad and Tobago as the system came under increased pressure to deliver, it failed to meet the requirements of the population. These flaws represented a need for reform, a reform that came, in phased out changes over the period, as the dual system remained largely in tack over the period 1900-1962. There was no attempt to replace the existing system despite its inability to cope with the escalating problems in the period 1900-1962.

        

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