The systems used to manage and sustain life and livelihood in the British colonies of the West Indies were direct adaptations adaptation from the British Empire.
Some of the systems imposed from Britain were economic, infrastructure, language and communication practices, currency, church, socio-economic class structure and lastly the education systems were direct replicas of the British Empire.
Moreover the 1834 emancipation act applied a resisted education reform that included the education of ex-slave . The opposition was mainly from the plantation owners. The legislation that freed black men allowed for his education.
A mass christian education of sort. This education system was a means of ensuring that British dominance remained in place for another hundred years. Two hundred years after the British formal education was still in tack in throughout the region.
Prior to the liberation of blacks in the region education for us was almost always impossible and were it existed it was resisted.
However. Mr. Codrington made a charitable bequest after his death in 1710 to the propagation of Christian education the will indicated the enslaves were also to be educated. Therefore, construction of the school started in1714 and its doors were open in 1745.
It became the first church school in the region with an attendance roster of only white boys whose parents couldn’t afford to ship them back to England for a proper grammar school education. Additionally, the school directly benefited from slavery as the estate via the church owned slaves and participated wealth extraction and genocide of blacks in the West Indies via sugar production.
However, in 1834 the emancipation act freed black men which was the first opportunity for mass schooling within the region at a time when a majority of the inhabitants were ex-slaves. The new education system like everything else of power and control was a direct attempt to reflect the practices of British ways of life and indoctrination.
The education system of the British Empire is divided into four main parts, primary education, secondary education, further education. Today the education system is organized as it was implemented in 1834 with grammar schools still holding the highest prestige where children compete at a common entrance exam for a seat to the oldest and most established grammar school in present day
* Image above is copyright Codrington College
