SABA/ST. EUSTATIUS--Among the three Caribbean Netherlands islands Saba has relatively many highly-educated inhabitants with a share of 33 per cent among 25- to 74-year-olds. In Bonaire and St. Eustatius, the respective shares of highly educated inhabitants are 18 and 20 per cent.
Popular study programmes in local higher education include law, business, administration and trade it emerged from new figures on education over 2016 based on the Labour Force Survey Caribbean Netherlands (LFS CN), which was published Thursday by Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) Netherlands.
Younger generations are generally more highly qualified than older generations. However, Statia’s population cohort of 45- to 54-year-olds are better educated than the younger generations; and in Bonaire, the 25- to 34-year-old and 45- to 54-year-old age brackets have similar shares of highly educated.
At the same time, the share of Bonairians with medium-level qualifications is increasing among younger generations. To pursue higher education, both young Bonairians and Statians are forced to leave their island. Whether they return and, if so, at what age, will depend on employment opportunities available for higher educated people, for example.
In Saba, the share of highly educated people among younger generations is larger than among older ones. This is related to the fact that the island houses Saba University School of Medicine.
A part of the over-25s are still in education, mostly in higher education. For example, 30 per cent of those with a high qualification level say they are still in education.
In addition nearly half (47 per cent) of highly educated people work in the education sector including the medical school. Actually, the majority of highly educated people on Saba consists of American or Canadian nationals. This is especially the case among those enrolled in education.
Women are better represented than men among the highly educated in Bonaire and Statia. For example, 21 per cent of women and 16 per cent of men in Bonaire obtained a degree in higher professional education HBO or university in 2016. In Statia these shares were 23 and 18 per cent respectively.
Conversely, men are in the majority among the lower skilled on both islands. In Saba, there are no disparities between the two sexes in terms of high-level education. However, more women than men on the island have attained medium-level education.
In Bonaire and Statia, highly-educated people mainly studied law, business, administration or trade. Popular study programmes in Saba are mathematics and physical sciences, including biology and biochemistry. This partially applies to those who are still in education.
If students are excluded, Saba also has law, business, administration and trade as the most popular study programmes.
