in the second half of the 19th century refer to the establishment of new secondary schools
in British Guiana - Queen's College; Trinidad - Queen's Collegiate School; Barbados - the
Lodge School. These schools were in many respects parallel to the Collegiate School in
Jamaica, except that they were supported by the colonial governments, but the latter is not
dealt with by those who have written on education in this period, leaving a perception that
Jamaica fell behind the other territories in this respect. The history of the Collegiate School
shows that the same sorts of issues arose in Jamaica as elsewhere, and also that the men
involved with the school played a much wider role on the educational scene in the island
than merely teaching at Collegiate. One issue of particular interest is the impact on education
in Jamaica of the tradition of Scottish pedagogy which the principals of the Collegiate
represented, along with other leading educators in the island; I do not think that this Scottish influence has been dealt with in any depth anywhere.
A Century of West Indian Education
Shirley C. Gordon
Longman, London, 1963
Development and Disillusion in Third World Education,
with emphasis on Jamaica
edited by Vincent D'Oyley and Reginald Murray
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1979
Education in the Caribbean: Historical Perspectives
edited by Ruby Hope King,
Faculty of Education, 1987
Jamaican Society and High Schooling
Errol Miller
Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1990
Neither Led nor Driven
Brian Moore and Michele Johnson
UWIPress, 2004
Chapter 7
[Contains brief references to the Collegiate, but contains no information on the school's status and significance.]
A Century of West Indian Education
Shirley C Gordon, Longman, London, 1963
Chapter 4, Maintaining the Provision of Education under the old West Indian Legislatures, 1845-65
page 78IV SOME PROVISION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION
3. c. The Church of Scotland maintains a
collegiate school in Montego Bay geared to
English standards
Educational Return of the Church of Scotland,
11 February 1864
The Collegiate School: A large boarding and
day school, whose object as designed, and
in so many instances carried out, is to give
an education similar to that in Great Britain
and to prepare for the Army, the University,
and for the merchant's office. The scholars
number 98, 26 of whom are boarders.
Presided over by Rev. Mr. Milne.
This is the only reference to the Collegiate School I have so far identified in any work on Jamaican education. The heading to the item is, of course, incorrect: the Collegiate School was in Kingston. It is also misleading to say that the Collegiate School was maintained by the Church of Scotland; it was run by clergy of the Church, but was not supported financially by the Church.
The Church of Scotland did in fact maintain an excellent Academy in Montego Bay, chiefly to educate Jamaicans to be teachers and catechists. That Academy operated in Montego Bay from 1845 to 1871.