50 years later the reverse: Tortola students now seek education on VG
It was not always easy, as it meant taking a ferry ride daily in smaller boats, most often in rough waters between Tortola and Virgin Gorda. In those early days, there was no Bregado Flax Educational Centre, no Valley Day School, no The Little Rainbow School and no Ciboney Centre for Excellence.
Therefore, all roads for an education led to Tortola at the then BVI High School, where some students had to find families on Tortola to stay with for the week, and they did not always receive the best treatment. There are stories of abuse, hunger and most often three to four in one bed.
Anegada was much the same, with no secondary school, and it was also difficult, some 50-plus years ago, to get a high school education there. One could only imagine the struggles of disabled or poorer students on the sister islands in those early days.
The transition
80 years ago, formal education was rare and mostly for the elite, in addition to some church-run schools. This led to the first Education Act in 1955. But this is not the objective of this article; the focus is on the transition and the reversal from seeking educational opportunities only on the main island of Tortola.
For example, in 2025, fewer than 5 students come to Tortola from Virgin Gorda to attend the Elmore Stoutt High School, according to Principal Vanessa K. Garraway.
Outside of students coming from Virgin Gorda and Jost van Dyke to attend the Virgin Islands School of Technical Studies (VISTS), there has been a reversal in the past 5 years, where students from Tortola are going to Virgin Gorda to seek an education, both elementary and secondary. This is indeed a historical shift. Boats, especially Speedy’s Ferry Service, are filled each day with over 40 students of all ages to attend schools on Virgin Gorda. There are also those who stay on Virgin Gorda now with families, the same way it was some 50 years ago when students from Virgin Gorda stayed on Tortola.
Private school education at Ciboney
One of the more popular private schools on Virgin Gorda is Ciboney Centre of Excellence, which offers from day care up to a secondary education and seems to be a favourite choice for residents of Tortola. There are even students from Tortola who journey to Virgin Gorda to attend the Bregado Flax Educational Centre.
When asked if the issue after 50 years is overcrowding in the Tortola schools, Chief Education Officer Mrs Orlandette R. Crabbe said it is a combination of many factors. She noted that Ciboney Centre for Excellence is “the choice for many parents who are seeking an affordable private school education” and that the institution is on par with Cedar International School located on Tortola. She also stated that there are about “20 students who travel from Tortola to Virgin Gorda to attend the Bregado Flax Educational Centre as they admire the small classroom teacher-to-student ratio”.
Trend will continue- Mrs O’Neal-Alexander
However, what is a historical reversal is that now there are about the same number of students from Tortola heading to Virgin Gorda daily for an education. The former Principal of the Bregado Flax Education Centre, Mrs Caryl D. L. O’Neal-Alexander, who spent some 51 years in education, also spoke about her experience having to come to Tortola in the 1970s for an education. She noted that the experience of staying with family and friends was not always the best, and many students suffered psychological challenges “as it was more like a business arrangements”. When asked the reason for the reversal, she agreed that “the small classroom student-teacher size on Virgin Gorda was a factor, along with parents now having more choices”.
Mrs O’Neal-Alexander does not predict that the trend will reverse anytime soon, as Virgin Gorda is holding its own in terms of high-quality education at all levels. The educator stated that most of the students coming from Tortola to Virgin Gorda “are from the higher income families”. She credited her uncle, the late Premier Ralph T. O’Neal, for his role in bringing secondary public education to Virgin Gorda.
One sure fact is that history must recall that students are going in huge numbers from Tortola to Virgin Gorda in 2025 for an education. They represent all ages, attending both private and public schools, all races, incomes and also present new business opportunities for ferry services, restaurants, taxi services and population increase for Virgin Gorda.
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23 Responses to “50 years later the reverse: Tortola students now seek education on VG”
Not because someone has a learning challenge, whether ADHD, not good at test taking due to ANXIETY etc. yet good at regular class work and participation means you have to batch them together.
You are SETTING THEM UP FOR FAILURE!!
Do you know that other students tell them they’re in a not smart class???
Students would thrive better in a mixed setting and ENOUGH with the standardized tests.
It DOES NOT DETERMINE WHETHER THEY ARE SMART.
Please keep your troubled kid away from the talented ones.
The good ones suffer from the bad. It’s not the bad who get inspired by the good.
Spend time with your kids, keep them away from screens etc. Read with them. Speak with them.
But please, don’t try to get your misbehaving ADHD monster together with the talented kids.
The fact is that in essence there were no schools on the Cay. As you noted, our parents had to beat the bushes to find families for their children to live with to attend school. Some landed in good homes, but others had experiences as indentured servants. In any event, grateful for the opportunity. Schools on Tortola, Anegada, and Anegada were free , provided by Anglican and Methodist Churches. Nonetheless, the other costs, ie, board and lodging, etc., had to be provided by parents. There were limited economic opportunities on the Cay. Parents work hard and struggled to eke out a living, ie, fishing, farming, etc to meet the needs of their families. The Cay was a collective communal community where each one help one. Moreover, having to leave the Cay at an early age (some as young as 4) to attend school, divided families up, have had psychological effects, etc. For example, a family could have had 3 or more children living in different homes with limited interaction with each other. Further, due to limited transportation and means of communication, families only got to interact with their chiren’ occasionally, ie, school vacation perhaps. Some rarely made it back to the Cay and though from the Cay lacked the culture, experience, etc., of Cay life. They were prisoners of sorts of the system. The Cay stigma is waining but it is still used as reference. More more time. Salt Island needs to be designated as an ancestral home.
If you gotta pay a lil extra to keep you kids out of that bad influence school knowns as Eshs then do that and send them Vg.
At least you'll be away from the ignorant criminal parent's who endorse there bad rude kid's bad behaviour. In most cases those same parents ain not better than there problematic kids...the father either a criminal or not present their life and the mother either love criminals and breed for one or she' was/is a party life might life person and in some cases a single mother....
But don't worry the same bad rude criminals kid's them support and endorsed will soon come home to roost and give them a taste of there stink behaviour...sadly a that point everybody will suffer for them not just the parents... Example money boys gang that consists of young boys from 14-20 still in school or dropped out...most of them attending Eshs or technical school....
Please check your grammar.
Find out how BULLYING driving pupils out of Tortola schools.
Time to do some real journalism.
vg massive big up to vg turning things round with tola school children going there but that says that the government fail big time the tola children and they out there talking froth about how we doing so good in education fuller of sh!t.
Pajamas are for the bedroom, not school....Shameful.
When we went to school, persons walked the campus all day to ensure children were where they are suppose to be, in class. Now, we have paid security and they do not do that and there is nobody who think it important and are requiring them to do it. Too many children on that campus period.