Antigua and Barbuda Govt introduces universal free education from this new academic term

An­tigua and Bar­bu­da’s Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter, Daryll Matthew, has de­scribed as “his­toric” the de­ci­sion to pro­vide “uni­ver­sal free ed­u­ca­tion from ear­ly child­hood to uni­ver­si­ty” as the new school term got un­der­way in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da on Mon­day.

Matthew said that the uni­ver­sal free ed­u­ca­tion is “a de­lib­er­ate pol­i­cy tak­en by the gov­ern­ment of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da to en­sure that fi­nances and re­sources are no longer a lim­i­ta­tion to the ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion here.”

He said that the Gas­ton Browne ad­min­is­tra­tion is “very proud that we have been able to achieve this in 2026”—whether it in­volves ex­am­i­na­tions in cer­tain sub­jects set by the Bar­ba­dos-based Caribbean Ex­am­i­na­tions Coun­cil (CXC), the tu­ition fees for the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) Five Is­lands cam­pus fees there.