About Us
The Caribbean Educational Research Centre (CERC) aims to enhance access to data and demand-driven research to facilitate evidence-based practices and decision making and inform the development agenda of the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados. The centre is funded by a US$3.6 million research grant provided by The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with an additional US$3 million in support provided by the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. With an interdisciplinary research focus, the centre supports decision making and policy making for educational innovation in the region.
Key CERC outcomes include:
- Establishing a research repository for education data
- Conducting demand-driven research and analysis to inform policy and planning for Ministries of Education and other stakeholders in education.
- Building capacity for research and training with students and education stakeholders
- Conducting and supporting comparative and collaborative research with higher education institutions in and outside of the region
- Strengthening research culture through publications, public lectures, and other means of sharing research findings.
The Centre will draw on research expertise from the School of Education (SOE), the wider Cave Hill campus, the other campuses of The UWI, the University of South Florida, Ministries of Education (MOE), and the teacher education divisions of the national colleges in the Eastern Caribbean (EC) and the Erdiston teachers’ college in Barbados to plan and execute research. CERC will be guided by a research agenda set by a Regional Research Advisory Committee (RRAC) consisting of representatives of key stakeholder groups in education in the Caribbean.
In harmony with the aim of building research capacity in the region, the Centre will provide assistantships and internships for graduate students pursuing research degrees in education and related fields, and staff from the MoEs and the national colleges, who will also work with classroom teachers to investigate classroom phenomena.
CERC replaces The Education Evaluation Centre that was dormant for over a decade. Key areas identified for investigation include the impact of COVID-19 on teaching and learning, the impact of natural disasters on students’ academic performance and psychological state for learning, the impact of examination practices in the region, and integration of technology in teaching and learning. Already, research is underway into the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on students learning experiences, which appear to have widened the inequalities in education in the Caribbean and exposed the urgent need to examine the current models of education to make them more equitable and resilient in times of crisis.
