SECTION III: PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
The primary enrolment for 2018-2019 stands at 12,962. This indicates a decrease of 232 students over the 2017-2018 figure which stood at 13,194. This may be partially attributable to pupils from the leeward islands returning home following the passage of tropical storms which displaced them from their respective homelands. Pupils within the primary cycle are accommodated in sixty-eight (68) primary institutions. Of these institutions, 57 are public and the remaining 11 are government assisted or private. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for the 2018-2019 academic year was 101.50. This indicates that the sector is able to accommodate the pupils who are between 5-11 years as well as those who enter early just before age 5 and those who remain beyond age 11.
Hence, from Kindergarten through to Grade 6 there are children who in any of three classifications. These classifications are “under-aged”, “class-aged” and “over-aged”. Pupils who are younger than given age of their class and thus be deemed as “under-aged” while those at the specified age for their grade are regarded as “class-aged” and those above age of their class are referred to as “over-aged”. The Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) was 94.02 which indicates that pupils ages 5-11 years are afforded the requisite space in the education system.
In the primary cycle the majority of the pupils attend government or public institutions as reflected in the 11.31% private enrolment. Primary education continues to receive the largest share of the education recurrent budget with salaries, wages and allowances accounting for approximately 96% of the allocation. The recurrent allocation for primary education in 2018 is $46,021,196 which is also inclusive of the pre-primary cycle.
The primary system continues to receive a sizable proportion of the budgetary allocation as the Ministry of Education strives to improve the quality of education throughout the sector. Teacher professional development continues to receive the greatest support and remains an important component in several of the projects currently being implemented.