Population, Education

School attendance by children between the ages of 6 and 11 is nearly universal, and 89.9 percent of all 12- to 18-year-olds attend secondary institutions. In 1998-1999 the enrollment in primary schools was 316,300.

A major institution of higher learning for the entire Caribbean region is the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus (1948), located at Kingston; it has more than 5,000 students and a library with more than 450,000 volumes. Jamaica also has a number of vocational and technical schools, teacher-training colleges, and a college of arts, science, and technology.