Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda (Spanish for "Ancient" and "Bearded") is an island nation located on the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major islands - Antigua and Barbuda - and a number of smaller islets. All are close neighbors within the middle of the Leeward Islands, and are located roughly 17 degrees north of the equator.

The country has a population of 82,000, comprising chiefly a mixture of people of West African, British, and Portuguese descent.

The capital (and largest city) is St John's.

The islands of Antigua and Barbuda are part of the Lesser Antilles archipelago. To the south of Antigua and Barbuda lie the islands of Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago. Montserrat lies to the southwest; Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Eustatius are to the west, and Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin and Anguilla are to the northwest.

The official language of Antigua and Barbuda is English, but many of the locals speak Antiguan Creole. The Barbudan accent is slightly different from the Antiguan. Spanish is also widely spoken in certain communities in Antigua where immigrants from the Dominican Republic make up large numbers.

Education

(sourced mainly from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Antigua_and_Barbuda)

The people of Antigua and Barbuda have a high level of literacy at well over 90%.

Education in Antigua and Barbuda is compulsory and free for children between the ages of 5 and 16 years. In order to ensure that all costs related to schooling are covered by the government, there is an education levy on all basic wages in Antigua and Barbuda, with the funds used toward such costs as supplies, transportation, and school infrastructure maintenance.

Primary education begins at the age of five years and normally lasts for seven years.

Secondary education lasts for five years, with three years of lower aecondary, followed by two years of upper secondary.

In 2001, there were about 13,000 students enrolled at the primary schools and 5,000 students at the secondary schools. About 1,000 secondary school age students were enrolled in vocational programs. As of 2000 the primary pupil-teacher ratio was an estimated 19 to 1; the ratio for secondary school was about 13:1. The government administers the majority of the schools. In 2003, estimated spending on education was about 3.8% of the GDP. In 2000, about 38% of primary school students were enrolled in private schools.

In 1998, Antigua and Barbuda adopted a national mandate to become the preeminent provider of medical services in the Caribbean. As part of this mission, Antigua and Barbuda is building the most technologically advanced hospital in the Caribbean, the Mt. St. John Medical Centre.

The Ministry of Education has an informative web site at http://www.education.gov.ag - even though several pages are still under construction.

Details of the school system can be found in the UNESCO report at http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/countryreports/antigua_barbuda/rapport_1.html

Higher education

The island of Antigua currently has two medical schools

• The American University of Antigua, founded in 2004
• The University of Health Sciences Antigua (UHSA), founded in 1982. (It had, in the 1990s, an enrollment of 46 students and 16 teachers.)

There is also a government-owned state college in Antigua. (In 1972, the technical and teacher’s training colleges merged and formed the Antigua State College.)

There is also the Antigua and Barbuda Institute of Information Technology (ABIIT).

The University of the West Indies has a branch in Antigua for locals to continue University studies. (It has campuses in Barbados, Trinidad, and Jamaica, and it maintains extramural departments in several other islands, including Antigua.)

Those interested in higher education also enroll at schools in the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe and Canada. The adult literacy rate is approximately 89%

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