Editorial. Education for All in the Caribbean: promise, paradox and possibility

The vision of Jomtien was simple and powerful: every person – child, youth and adult – shall be
able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs. In other
words: Education for All (EFA). Although Universal Primary Education (UPE) had long been part
of the rhetoric of Caribbean governments, the World Conference on Education for All held in
Thailand in 1990, attended by almost every country of the world, every development agency, and a
large collection of national and international non-governmental agencies, made it both universal
and official: education, not only in primary school, but for young children, youth and adults as
well. Education was therefore to be regarded as a fundamental right of humankind.