Dutch education minister to visit three Caribbean islands

Dutch education, culture and science minister Rianne Letschert will visit Sint Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba from 16 to 20 November, with talks on education and closer links between schools and the labour market at the centre of the trip.

The visit includes the annual Ministerial Four-Country Consultation on Education, Culture and Science, hosted this year by Sint Maarten. For the first time, representatives from Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba will also take part, alongside ministers from Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the Netherlands.

The agenda includes multilingual education, mobile-phone use in classrooms and a joint nomination process for the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. Ministers will also discuss the Strategic Education Alliance, a Kingdom-wide programme aimed at improving Caribbean students’ study success, and an Education Council report on education in the Caribbean Netherlands.

Letschert is due to arrive in Sint Maarten on 17 November. Her programme there includes a visit to vocational college NIPA and discussions with teachers about resilience. She will then travel to Curaçao on 19 November, where planned visits include a hospitality training hotel and the University of Curaçao. On 20 November, she is scheduled to visit Aruba’s primary and vocational schools, the University of Aruba and the National Archives of Aruba.

The trip is also intended as an introduction to the Caribbean countries of the Kingdom. In Curaçao, Letschert is due to meet the Slavery Past Commemoration Committee and visit the UNESCO World Heritage site of Otrobanda.