Caribbean Tourism
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Education Notes

Adult literacy rate is greater than 80 percent. Education begins in primary school at age of 5, with entrance to five-year secondary education at age 11 via success in the Common Entrance Examination. Students sit the CXC (Caribbean Examination Council) examinations and may then advance to GCE at A-Level offered by the London and Cambridge syndicates to qualify for entry to university.


The regional university is the University of the West Indies with campuses in Antigua, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad. Faculties include Natural Sciences, Arts, General Studies, Social Sciences, Engineering, Tropical Agriculture, Law and Medicine.

Antigua operates the Antigua State College, a vocational college preparing students fro A-Levels and for skills in home management, office practice, motor mechanics, refrigeration, electronics and agriculture.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism also promotes on-the-job training by funding student "salaries" while the students work within local businesses to accumulate marketable skills.The economy is primarily service oriented, with tourism the most important determinant of economic performance. During the period 1987-90, real GDP expanded at an annual average rate of about 6%. Tourism makes a direct contribution to GDP of about 13% and also affects growth in other sectors - particularly in construction, communications, and public utilities.

Although Antigua and Barbuda is one of the few areas in the Caribbean experiencing a labor shortage in some sectors of the economy, it was hurt in 1991 by a downturn in tourism caused by the Persian Gulf war and the U.S. recession, and again in 1995 by the effects of Hurricane Luis which damaged the tourism infrastructure of the island very badly and caused the loss of most of one year's revenue from tourism. Most of the damage was repaired by mid-1996 and un upturn in tourism is expected.

Recognising the danger of a single-input economy, Antigua has looked to offshore financial market penetration as a secondary source of income (see Offshore Finance). In addition, a thriving Ships Registry and other economic citizen programs attract additional revenues.


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