Message from the Permanent Secretary- Mr. Myccle Burke
The importance of data to the decision-making process has resulted in the annual production of the Statistical Digest by the Education Planning Unit within the Ministry of Education and National Reconciliation. Each page of the Digest provides insight into the functioning of the Education system, capturing enrolment, reflecting the rate of attrition and repetition.
Quality education remains the critical goal of the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the staff of the Ministry of Education work assiduously with its stakeholders to realize this objective. The fulfilling of this mandate has not been without challenges in a truncated academic year that has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the explosive eruption of La Soufriere. Momentum gained was forcibly dissipated in an unpredictable environment that required ingenuity and an emphasis on the use of technology at the forefront of learning and instruction.
The travails of the academic year deepened the resolve of our educators and demonstrated the resilience of an evolving system buoyed by the investments in technological devices and learning software by the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The demand for quality data intensified in a year of unprecedented challenges, as the face of education and its delivery became more complex. Information was requested by various entities, locally, regionally, and internationally and the provision of the requisite information resulted in support for our education system by these organizations. The increased need for data and the difficulties associated with its timely supply, makes it incumbent that investments be made in a synchronous management information system that is easily accessible. Similar investments must be made in expanding the knowledge and competency of our human resource to productively manipulate these systems to the benefit of all stakeholders.