SECTION V: SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
Secondary Education in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is provided by twenty-nine (29) institutions, twenty-one (21) of which are public. The remaining eight (8) schools are owned by churches but operate with substantial financial assistance from the Government. These eight (8) schools are referred to as Assisted Secondary (AS) schools. In 2020-2021, the overall secondary enrolment stood at nine thousand six hundred and three (9,603) with the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) being 99.92 while the Net Enrolment Rate (NER) was 82.32. The latter shows that the majority of pupils between 12-16 years are retained within the secondary cycle, while the former reflects that there are also pupils who entered early and are “under-aged” as well those who are a bit older and “over-aged”. The majority of secondary pupils attend public or government secondary schools as shown in the 28.48% private enrolment.
There was an increase in the overall number of teachers from seven hundred and sixty-six (766) in 2019-2020 to seven hundred and ninety-nine (799) in 2020-2021. Over the last approximately ten (10) years, it was observed that the teaching staff is increasingly comprised of females, and 2020-2021 is no exception. Of the seven hundred and ninety-nine (799) teachers at the secondary level, five hundred and forty-five (545) are female. Between the 2015-2016 and 2020-2021 academic years there was an increase in the proportion of trained teachers from 57.08 % to 60.08%. In 2020-2021, of the overall four hundred and eighty (480) trained teachers, three hundred and forty-six (346) or 72.08% are female. While efforts are on-going to improve the skills of the teaching staff, there are still concerns regarding the best measures which could be employed to assist pupils who are not meeting the desired benchmarks or worse yet dropping out of the cycle as seen in the ninety-six (96) pupils who exited prematurely as opposed to the previous year’s two hundred and fifty-seven (257) who exited prematurely in 2019-2020.