THE INITIAL ENGAGEMENT AND EXPERIENCES OF CARIBBEAN EDUCATORS WITH THE REALITY OF COVID-19 - EXPLORING THE EDUCATIONAL PLANNING IMPLICATIONS

Oct 15, 2026

COVID-19 disrupted education globally, and Caribbean Small Island Developing States faced varied impacts and responses across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Drawing on three Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning webinars, this qualitative study compiles stakeholders’ experiences to inform educational planning and policy. Findings show many were unprepared, complicating shifts to online or blended teaching, intensifying psycho-social strain and economic pressure, and disrupting examinations. Responses included training, expanded communication, upgraded technical and infrastructure support, reinforced health and safety protocols, and regional collaboration to improve access.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction and Background

Statement of the Problem

THE INITIAL ENGAGEMENT AND EXPERIENCES OF CARIBBEAN EDUCATORS WITH THE REALITY OF COVID-19: EXPLORING THE EDUCATIONAL PLANNING IMPLICATIONS CANUTE THOMPSON THERESE FERGUSON VERNA KNIGHT DIAN BAILEY SHARLINE COLE NADINE DAVIS MAXINE HENRY-WILSON VIVIENE JOHNSON AVALLOY MCCARTHY-CURVIN ALLISON MONTGOMERY SCHONTAL MOORE The University of the West Indies, Jamaica ABSTRACT COVID-19 caught the world off-guard, bringing disruption and chaos to all sectors, including education. Within Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the experiences were varied, as were the responses of educational stakeholders at all levels to the crisis of the pandemic. Stakeholders’ experiences and responses should inform educational planning and policy, and it is against that backdrop that this research was conducted. This research captures the insights from three webinars sponsored by the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning, which focused on challenges faced by educational institutions at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of the education system. The transcripts from those webinars were used to construct this paper using a generic qualitative research design. The webinars pulled on the expertise of panellists from across the Caribbean and North America. The findings reveal that most stakeholders were unprepared for the challenges occasioned by COVID-19, which translated into further difficulties adapting to online/blended teaching/learning, psycho-social stresses, heightened economic challenges, and disruptions to examinations. In response to these challenges, among the stakeholders, training was implemented, open communication increased, technical and infrastructural resources were upgraded, health and safety protocols were enforced/reinforced, and domestic and international groups collaborated to bolster access for all students. Lessons learned included the need for collaboration, equity, access, and opportunities, and exercising the courage to radically rethink the region’s ‘educational futures’ by incorporating the shared perspectives of key stakeholders in educational planning and policy making. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic presented the world with a major catastrophe resulting in school disruption for some 1.5 billion students worldwide, according to World Bank estimates (Saavedra & Kopp, 2020) . An October 2020 report sponsored by the Organization for Economic Co- Educational Planning | Spring 2022 7 Vol. 29, No. 2 operation and Development (OECD) notes that with the unprecedented disruptions in schooling caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers, educators, researchers and the general public have demonstrated increased interest in knowing how education stakeholders have responded and how students’ learning experiences have changed. These are important subjects of study to guide policy-making and the operations of schools in the future (Bertling et al., 2020) . In the Caribbean, the estimates are that some 7 million students and 90,000 teachers across 23 countries have been affected by school closures due to the pandemic (Asevedo et al., 2020) . The scope and scale of this unprecedented problem have been the subject of study by countless organizations. The Caribbean is a region with a history of colonialism and is characterized by a deep-seated legacy of asymmetries of power, exploitation, and inequality in the broader society and within the education system (Brissett, 2018) . This has resulted in disparities in the quality of resources made available to schools and, thus, inequalities in student outcomes. Student population is estimated tobe approximately 89,000 primary aged children in the Eastern Caribbean (Menefee & Bray, 2015) and over 200,000 in Jamaica. While most Caribbean countries operate centralized education systems, the diverse realities within which schools operate require that school leaders take steps locally to address disparities and challeng

FAQs

What research method and data source were used in the study?

The study used a generic qualitative research design built from transcripts of three webinars sponsored by the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning.

What major challenges did stakeholders face after COVID-19 disruptions?

Stakeholders reported unpreparedness and resulting difficulties adapting to online or blended teaching/learning, psycho-social stresses, heightened economic challenges, and disruptions to examinations.

What actions did stakeholders take in response to these challenges?

Responses included implementing training, increasing open communication, upgrading technical and infrastructural resources, enforcing or reinforcing health and safety protocols, and collaborating domestically and internationally to bolster access for students.

Oct 15, 2026

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