The English-speaking Caribbean has the lowest enrolment of young people in higher education in the entire hemisphere, and a leading academic says this “tragic situation” is impacting the region’s ability to recover from economic challenges.Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies Professor Sir Hilary Beckles made the comments as he delivered welcome remarks at the second annual Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Ministerial Summit held in Grenada on Friday.“If you take our hemisphere, from Alaska in the north to Argentina in the south, and you collect your data on the percentage of young people under the age of 30 in higher education, professional development skills training, the English-speaking Caribbean is at the bottom of the pile. This is a tragic situation,” he said, adding that French-speaking, Dutch-speaking and Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations were ahead.
