Antigua and Barbuda Govt introduces universal free education from this new academic term

An­tigua and Bar­bu­da’s Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter, Daryll Matthew, has de­scribed as “his­toric” the de­ci­sion to pro­vide “uni­ver­sal free ed­u­ca­tion from ear­ly child­hood to uni­ver­si­ty” as the new school term got un­der­way in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da on Mon­day.

Matthew said that the uni­ver­sal free ed­u­ca­tion is “a de­lib­er­ate pol­i­cy tak­en by the gov­ern­ment of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da to en­sure that fi­nances and re­sources are no longer a lim­i­ta­tion to the ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion here.”

He said that the Gas­ton Browne ad­min­is­tra­tion is “very proud that we have been able to achieve this in 2026”—whether it in­volves ex­am­i­na­tions in cer­tain sub­jects set by the Bar­ba­dos-based Caribbean Ex­am­i­na­tions Coun­cil (CXC), the tu­ition fees for the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) Five Is­lands cam­pus fees there.

“All of these tu­ition fees have been cov­ered by the gov­ern­ment of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, and I’m tremen­dous­ly proud to be a part of that ini­tia­tive,” he added.

In his mes­sage mark­ing the open­ing of the new school year, Matthew wel­comed stu­dents back to the class­room, adding that the changes are de­signed to shift the de­cid­ing fac­tor in a stu­dent’s ed­u­ca­tion away from what their fam­i­ly can af­ford.

“It means that in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, in 2026, the ques­tion of whether a child is ed­u­cat­ed to the very lim­it of their abil­i­ty is no longer a ques­tion about that fam­i­ly’s bank bal­ance. It is a ques­tion about that child’s ef­fort and that child’s will.”

Matthew de­scribed the in­vest­ment in ed­u­ca­tion as a na­tion­al strat­e­gy rather than sim­ply an act of gov­ern­ment gen­eros­i­ty, ar­gu­ing that An­tigua and Bar­bu­da can­not af­ford to al­low ca­pa­ble young peo­ple to miss op­por­tu­ni­ties be­cause of fi­nan­cial bar­ri­ers.

He al­so ac­knowl­edged that ex­pand­ed ac­cess can bring ad­di­tion­al pres­sure on ed­u­ca­tors and schools, but pledged that the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion would con­tin­ue work­ing to pro­vide ed­u­ca­tors with im­proved tools, train­ing and work­ing con­di­tions.

“I do not take that for grant­ed, and I will not pre­tend the re­sources have ever been as plen­ti­ful as your ef­fort has been. You have my re­spect, you have my thanks, and you have my com­mit­ment that this Min­istry will keep work­ing to give you the tools, the train­ing and the con­di­tions your pro­fes­sion de­serves.”

The Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter al­so urged par­ents and guardians to re­main ac­tive­ly in­volved in their chil­dren’s ed­u­ca­tion.

“Ask about the home­work. Go to the meet­ing. Know the teacher. Praise the ef­fort, not on­ly the grade,” he said. “Your at­ten­tion is worth more than any­thing in our bud­get.” —ST. JOHN’S, An­tigua (CMC)