An examination of Table 4a under Total Enrolment and Enrolment of official Primary School Age revealed that in the Public Schools there were more males than females for the years considered. The reverse is true for the Private Schools except for the period 1997 – 1998. Further, it is important to note that there was a constant decrease in enrolment between 1990 and 1998.

All Gross Enrolment Ratios (GER) exceeded 100 percent for the years 1990 - 1991 and 1991 – 1992 while only that for the males in 1993 – 1994 and 1997 – 1998 exceeded 100 percent. The remaining GER were above 92 percent. These were considered high. Such GER indicate that the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, in principle, was able to accommodate the most primary – age population.

The Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) should not exceed 100 percent but there were four that did. These indicated that there were more pupils enrolled in the schools than the official primary school-age population. Perhaps this result was obtained because the official school–age population was estimated at mid-year. Most of the other NER were in the nineties with only two in the eighties. These were high and showed that there was almost universal primary education.

Another observation to note is the fact that there were less pupils of primary school-age enrolled in 1997 – 1998. Consequently the MoE needs to double its efforts to ensure that this is not repeated.

An examination of the above table shows that there were more female than males in the Private Schools. This holds for ‘total enrolment and enrolment of official lower secondary school age’. However, under ‘total enrolment’ there were more males than females in the Public Schools for 1990 – 1991, 1991 – 1992, and 1994 – 1995. There were more females than males for the other two years. A similar development is observed under ‘enrolment of official lower secondary school-age population. Further, there were more females than males in 1997 – 1998 while there were the same number of males and females in 1993 – 1994. Finally, it is important to note that there were males than females in the ‘official school – age population.

The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for 1990 – 1991 and the one for the females in 1997 – 1998 exceeded 100 percent. These high ratios show that the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis was able to accommodate all its lower secondary school – age population. The remaining GER were above 84%. Even though these were fairly high and showed that a large number of pupils were enrolled, they also indicate that not all of the lower secondary school – age population were enrolled.

Only two of the Net Enrolment Ratios were approximately 100 percent while the remaining ones were above 83 percent. These are considered high thus showed that there was a high degree of participation at the lower secondary schools. However, I must indicate that there is still some room for improvement. All the NER below 100% indicate that not all lower secondary school pupils were enrolled in schools. Consequently, the MoE needs to put the necessary mechanism in place to ensure that all secondary pupils are enrolled in school.