Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

No long-term strategy in Cayman education, report finds

No long-term strategy in Cayman education, report finds

In its first-ever audit of Cayman’s education system, the Office of the Auditor General describes a Ministry of Education that lacks a clear direction of where it is going.

The 71-page report, issued Thursday, faults the ministry for implementing programmes and policies without specific long-term goals on what it should achieve. The report also notes the system continues to suffer from chronic student underperformance, ineffective use of its budget and ongoing problems with students with special education needs.

Of the 18 recommendations Auditor General Sue Winspear made in the report, the ministry accepted all but one. In the one exception, the ministry said it was already holding private schools to account for the public money they receive.

In a statement, the ministry said it recognised the need for a clearer vision.

“The ministry acknowledges the importance of a strategic plan for education and will include this in upcoming planning,” the statement read.

Ministry officials did not respond to Cayman Compass requests for direct comment on the report.

One of the weaknesses cited in the report was the agency’s failure to include teachers and parents in decision making.

“There is no overall strategy for parental engagement,” the report said. “We found that a recent policy was developed and implemented without sufficient parental engagement or consultation with teachers.”

The policy cited was the implementation in 2018 of a new dress code for students. The auditor general said the policy was introduced too close to the beginning of the school year to allow schools and parents to adequately prepare.

Other areas lacking in planning, particularly long term, include:


Finances


Workforce planning
Monitoring or reporting progress in achieving broad outcome and outputs.
The report adds there is “no clear link between the vision and priorities for education and the government’s economic priorities”. In other words, student learning does not necessarily line up with the needs of Cayman society.


Lack of funding is not an issue, the report said.

In the 2018 calendar year, the government spent $85.6 million on public school education. That figure is a 17% increase compared to the 2013-2014 school year.

The proportion government spent on education also rose over the same period.

“Education spending increased from 9.8% of core government spending to 12.7%,” the study said. “In 2018, spending on education accounted for the largest percentage of core government spending.”


The amount puts Cayman ahead of most countries.

“The average cost per student in public schools is 66% higher than the average cost per student in private schools and was the second-highest cost per student in 2015 when compared to 33 countries belonging to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development,” the report stated. Those countries include Australia, Canada, the UK and the US.


Whether the funds were well spent is unclear.

“The absence of outcomes or success measures and of monitoring and reporting what is delivered against what is expected makes it difficult to determine whether the $86 million spent on public school education is providing value for money,” the report said.

One of the areas benefiting most from the increase in funding is services for special needs students. In the five years studied, that funding increased 49% to $4 million.

But Caymanians did not get what they paid for, according to the report. Despite the infusion of additional money, there was little to show for it in terms of student performance.

“There is no national strategy for SEN [Special Education Needs] and it is not clear if this increase in funding is improving outcomes for students with SEN,” the report said. “Over the five years to 2018, the attainment of primary school students with SEN declined significantly in all subjects except writing. However, the attainment of Year 12 students with SEN has improved over the same period.”

One of the few metrics the ministry does track is student/teacher ratio. But it was faulted for this, as well.

The report said such ratios are “not an indicator of better educational outcomes”.

There were a few areas where the report praised the education system. It noted that student performance has improved overall in the past five years. It also said data analysis is better than in the past.

“The increased use of data over the past few years has provided a better understanding of the impact that certain initiatives and programmes such as reading recovery have on student performance,” the report said. “However, there is scope to further develop the use of data.”

Much of that could be applied to student outcomes, according to the auditor general. Cayman’s government school students continue to perform well below international standards. And while overall scores have improved, the achievement gap between expected and actual performance has widened.

In tests given at the end of Year 6, “between 59% and 66% of students achieved Level 4 or higher in each of the four subjects” tested, the report said. The Department of Education, it noted, “does not publish information on how many students pass all four subjects but for the purposes of our audit, we obtained that information for 2018. This shows that 45% of students achieved the expected level in all four subjects.”

Performance predictors indicated that 98% of primary students should score Level 4 in English and 93% should hit Level 4 in maths.

In its statement on the report, the Education Ministry said one of its main focusses “has been to improve student performance (progress and achievement), in our most vulnerable students, as well as maintain the performance of our higher-performing students. The 2018-2019 Office of Education Standards Full Inspection Report highlighted the fact that 72% of schools that receive government funding (private/public schools) performed at a level that was deemed satisfactory or better.”

It should be noted that student performance is only one of many factors considered in those assessments.

The ministry said it expected to address some of the report’s concerns through the new primary curriculum introduced at the start of this school year and the new secondary curriculum due to be implemented at the start of the 2020-2021 school year.

“Included in this new curriculum are UK-based assessments and data tracking systems that will facilitate more accurate benchmarking against our international counterparts,” the statement said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
×