The Religious Education Syllabus is designed to provide students with opportunities to participate in the age-long search of human beings for the meaning and purpose of life, and to facilitate an appreciation and an affirmation of their own sense of uniqueness and identity. It is intended to assist them in understanding the concept of god in religions. It also seeks to help them become aware of the interconnectedness among God, human beings and the world. The syllabus exposes students to different religious ideas, values and ways of expressing them so that they can interact meaningfully with people of different religious and cultural persuasions in the Caribbean and the world.

Further, the syllabus seeks to foster understanding, appreciation and respect for the religious, ethnic, cultural, political and other aspects of plurality in the Caribbean. It is intended that the study of the Religious Education Syllabus will help students to understand their society and the belief systems of others, clarify their own belief systems, deal with problems, and resolve conflicts.

The Religious Education syllabus is made up of a Compulsory Core and four Options. Each candidate must study the Compulsory Core and ONE Option. The Core emphasises the beliefs and practices of four world religions and six indigenous religions in the Caribbean. This section is intended to provide a foundation for the study of the central concepts of the religions that will follow in the four Options listed below:

The Modern Languages Syllabus focuses on developing students’ ability to communicate in two of the languages in use in the Caribbean region. As students develop the competence to listen, speak, read and write in French and Spanish and interpret aspects of the culture in which the languages are embedded, they acquire the means to facilitate deeper interaction with our Caribbean neighbours.

The syllabus is organised around three main concepts: Functions and Notions, Settings and Topics and Grammar and Lexis. In the syllabus, emphasis is placed on the student’s ability to use the target language in a functional way. Therefore, the basic functions needed for communication are identified. Functions, however, are performed in particular contexts and, therefore, the settings in which the functions are likely to be performed are identified.

This approach used in organising the syllabus seeks to shift attention away from a purely structural approach to a more communicative one. It is expected that students following this syllabus will be able to carry out these functions in the target language based on the following topics – Home and Family, School and Career, Sports and Recreation, Daily Routines, Shopping and Travel.

Students who do the English course will explore receptively and expressively three major literary modes, Drama, Poetry, and Prose Fiction, in order to become aware of the many functions and purposes of language. In doing so, they will discover that the four facets of language arts, namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing, are closely linked together and are interdependent.

Syllabus objectives are organised under understanding and expression in order to guide curriculum development, to give meaning to a teaching programme and to define an assessment scheme that reinforces an English syllabus which has been conceived as an integrated approach to language teaching and which enables students to appreciate the holistic nature of language learning.

The English Syllabus is organised for examination as English A and English B. The former emphasises the development of oral and written language skills among students through a variety of strategies. The latter provides opportunities for students to explore and respond critically to specific literary texts as they observe and appreciate the author’s craft.