Educational Tracking and Inequality: Towards Equity in Education in the Caribbean

Educational Tracking and Inequality: Towards Equity in Education in the Caribbean

Despite gains in educational outcomes in Caribbean countries including achieving universal primary education enrolment, their educational systems, curricular and pedagogical practices continue to bear colonial imprints from over 500 years (Rush, 2011; Whiteman, 1994). Structural reforms and advancements have done little to remove disparities between post secondary educational outcomes of different socioeconomic groups, as children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds remain more likely to have higher educational attainments than those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (OECD, 2012). This paper explores explicit school tracking (formal/overt division of students into different school types and features) and implicit school tracking (informal/subtle division of students into different school types and features) systems in Caribbean countries and how these influence inequalities in post secondary educational attainment between socioeconomic groups. Grounding our analysis in postcolonialism and Boudon’s (1974) positional theory, and utilizing empirical research (including ethnography of marginalized group in 6 inner-city communities in Kingston and St. Andrew, Jamaica) along with educational data from national/regional statistics, we tease out practices that mitigate educational success. We argue for a regional educational action plan that dismantles systems and practices (such as school tracking) that perpetuate stratification and exclusion, and hinder many Caribbean children from optimizing their full potentials.