As human beings, we are naturally curious about the many things around us- their origins, evolutions and how they have come to shape our reality.

In the spirit of back-to-school, Our Today has been tracing the history of education in Jamaica and how it developed over the years.

When faced with waking up on early Monday mornings, many students find themselves questioning who invented school? A question laced with some amount of dislike towards the unidentified person.

As expected, Jamaica’s history of slavery and colonialism affected various institutions, schools being one of them.

Education in the slavery era

Education in Jamaica can be traced as far back as 1655 when the British took over the island from the Spanish.

Having wiped all traces of the Spanish’s existence, there is very little to suggest that there were educational institutions before 1655.

After the British took control, colonists would either send their sons back to England to receive education or hire private tutors.

Those colonists who were less affluent would send their children to free schools established strictly for colonists by merchants and plantation owners.

The curriculum and structure of these free schools also reflected that of the schools in England.

This characteristic has trickled down to modern times with many Jamaican schools operating under a British structure.

Education was a privilege that was granted based on three factors – race, gender and status. As such, children of many slaves and daughters of colonists did not receive any formal education.

Instead, only young men received education in preparation for taking their place in society.

History provides little documentation regarding the education of girls in the colony of Jamaica prior to 1770, when Wolmer’s Free School initiated a modified curriculum for girls, teaching them domestic-based skills.

There were several schools that started in the 1700s, contributing to the advancement of secondary learning. These include Mannings High, St Jago, Titchfield and Rusea’s High School, five of Jamaica’s first secondary institutions.

Education in the post slavery era

After slavery was abolished in 1834, the British saw education as an opportunity to incorporate ex slaves into their colonial economy.

Missionary societies later developed a system of elementary education for the newly freed slaves. This system was taken over by the colonial government, beginning in the 1860s.

The primary grades of this schooling focused heavily on the proverbial ‘three Rs’—reading, writing and arithmetic—with some added education in religious training and some occasional lessons in geography and history.  

Boys and girls also received slightly different forms of education.

In addition to the three Rs, boys were trained in agriculture while girls were taught domestic skills such as sewing.

This form of education was formalised by the Lumb Report of 1898 that allowed for separate education tracks for boys and girls.

As the relative number of British people in Jamaica began to decline, it became essential to move native Jamaicans into certain intermediate occupations.

In the early years of the 20th Century, Jamaica saw an increase in secondary schools and the creation of government scholarships to study overseas.

Around 1943-1944, the Kandel Report and the associated Plan for Post-Primary Education further addressed the educational, social, and economic conditions in the colony.

The aim was to address the curriculum of education at the secondary level, and established a universal literary core for both boys and girls.

In an aim to create a self sufficient form of higher education that did not rely on Britain, the University of the West Indies (UWI) was founded in 1948 at Mona, Jamaica. 

Since then, Jamaica has made significant advancements in education.

According to the Early Childhood Commission, there are currently 2,600 basic schools across the island. There are also 165 secondary schools and tertiary education offered by more than 50 schools, many of which are private.