How Caribbean schools are turning to STEAM to future-proof their students
STEAM education is no longer a niche experiment in the Caribbean. It is becoming a central strategy for how small island states prepare their young people for a digital and climate stressed future. From large national programs in Jamaica to robotics camps and teacher training in the Eastern Caribbean, the region is building a network of initiatives that link science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics to real economic choices for students.
At the heart of this shift is a simple reality. Caribbean economies are trying to move beyond tourism and traditional services without leaving a generation behind. A 2024 regional review of STEM education argued that Caribbean countries now see stronger STEM and STEAM systems as “indispensable” to their wider social and economic goals, but also warned that teacher training, curriculum reform, and investment have to accelerate if the region wants to keep pace with global change.
Jamaica is leading the charge. Islands such as St. Maarten, is starting to move in the right direction.
Jamaica moves from pilot projects to system change
No country in the region has put STEAM more clearly into national policy than Jamaica. In 2025 the government, in partnership with the British Council and several local agencies, launched a three year STEAM Education in Schools Program valued at about £1.7 million. The program aims to systematically integrate STEAM into the curriculum of more than 800 primary and secondary schools, with a strong focus on digital literacy and coding.
The initiative does not only ship microcontrollers and laptops into classrooms. It funds teacher training, classroom resources, and a structured approach to using tools like the micro:bit platform so that students learn to design, test, and iterate rather than just follow step by step instructions. British Council materials emphasize that the goal is to build critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration, and to do it early enough that students see STEAM fields as normal career paths rather than elite options.
Alongside this system wide program, Jamaica is building new flagship institutions. The government has committed to construct six STEM schools and one dedicated STEAM Academy, a Jamaica 60 legacy project that will sit on 22 acres at the Greater Bernard Lodge Development in St. Catherine. Construction of the first STEAM academy is scheduled to start in fiscal year 2025/26.
Officials describe the academy as a future ready institution that will blend rigorous science and engineering with the arts and creativity, with a view to preparing students for jobs in fields like renewable energy, digital media, and advanced manufacturing. That framing matches the policy language in Jamaica’s national STEAM reports, which argue that science and technology education must be tied directly to national development and not treated as an isolated academic track.
In practical terms, this means that Jamaica is trying to move STEAM from a series of projects into the spine of its education system. Teacher professional development, dedicated campuses, coding initiatives, and partnerships with international organizations are all part of a single strategy rather than separate experiments.
A robotics circuit for the Eastern Caribbean
While Jamaica focuses on large national programs, smaller Eastern Caribbean states are building STEAM capacity through regional cooperation. The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Robotics Association, formed with backing from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, has set out to create a pipeline of young people with robotics and engineering skills across the OECS.
The association organizes the OECS Super Regional Robotics Challenge and the Caribbean Robotics Championship, where national teams compete in engineering tasks that require coding, mechanical design, and strategic thinking. Promotional material for the 2026 Super Challenge, set for the British Virgin Islands, describes it as the “ultimate robotics and STEAM championship” for the subregion, bringing together teams from multiple islands for a week of competitions, showcases, and networking.
In its public statements, the bank has framed STEM and STEAM skills as “vital to the build out of a digital economy” in the Eastern Caribbean. It argues that students who work in robotics and related fields learn to think critically, solve problems together, and design products that respond to local challenges, from agriculture to climate resilience.
The robotics association and its tournaments are therefore part competition, part talent pipeline, and part public demonstration that the region’s young people can operate confidently in high tech environments. They also create regional role models. A student from St. Kitts or Dominica who sees teams from across the OECS building robots on the same field has a more concrete picture of what an engineering career might look like.
St. Maarten links STEAM to technical education and AI
St. Maarten has started to place STEAM at the intersection of vocational training, science fairs, and policy on artificial intelligence. In August 2025, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, through its Division of Educational Innovation, partnered with UNESCO to deliver an intensive three day STEAM training at the St. Maarten Vocational Training School. The workshop introduced teachers to transdisciplinary methods that use robotics, microcontrollers, coding, and project based learning to prepare students for the workforce of tomorrow.
Officials described the program as a step toward modernizing vocational and technical education so that students do not only learn to use tools, but also understand the digital systems and data behind them. The emphasis was on equipping teachers with strategies that build problem solving and innovation rather than simply layering new gadgets on top of old lesson plans.
Outside the formal school system, the St. Maarten Science Fair Foundation has joined forces with the OECS Robotics Association, UNESCO, and other partners to strengthen STEAM opportunities for island youth. In 2025, this collaboration outlined three key initiatives: a STEAM robotics summer camp, participation in the FIRST Global Robotics Olympics as guests and volunteers, and training for coaches and mentors who can guide students year round.
Local events are beginning to reflect this focus. At a recent AI and STEAM education conference hosted by FAVE for its 50th anniversary, St. Maarten’s Prime Minister and Minister of Education both framed STEAM as central to national development. The Minister of Education spoke about integrating AI and STEAM across the school system and urged teachers to embrace innovation while keeping student outcomes and the country’s economic future at the center.
Taken together, these moves suggest that St. Maarten is trying to align policy, teacher training, and extracurricular programs so that students meet STEAM in multiple spaces: in vocational classrooms, science fairs, robotics camps, and now AI focused conferences.
A regional pattern starts to emerge
When you place these examples side by side, a regional pattern becomes clear. Jamaica is building national infrastructure for STEAM through a large schools program and purpose built academies. The OECS is creating cross border competitions and associations that make robotics and engineering visible and aspirational. St. Maarten is using partnerships and vocational schools to integrate STEAM with workforce preparation and AI policy.
At the policy level, all three approaches point in the same direction. Caribbean governments and regional bodies now view STEAM education as part of economic strategy, not only curriculum reform. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank explicitly links robotics and STEAM to the growth of the digital economy. Jamaica’s national reports talk about STEAM as a tool for achieving wider socioeconomic goals and preparing for new industries. Regional research commissioned by the British Council calls for coordinated investment in teacher training, infrastructure, and assessment to make STEAM efforts sustainable rather than project based.
The challenges are still significant. Many Caribbean teachers report limited resources, crowded curricula, and the pressure of high stakes exams that reward memorization more than experimentation. Connectivity gaps and device shortages remain real, especially in rural areas and on smaller islands. Scholarships and local job markets do not yet fully match the talk about STEAM careers.
Yet the examples from Jamaica, the OECS, and St. Maarten show that the region is moving from abstract statements to concrete programs: building new schools, training teachers, running robotics tournaments, forming associations, and bringing AI and STEAM into national conversations about development. For Caribbean students, that means a growing chance to encounter science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics as living subjects connected to real problems, rather than as disconnected textbook chapters.
𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘸 𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘚𝘛𝘌𝘈𝘔 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘑𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘤𝘢, 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.