The document discusses continuing public education strategies for informing the Caribbean region about the Zika virus. It outlines the evolving concept of continuing education from post-formal education to lifelong learning. It also describes the University of the West Indies' (UWI) mandate to support development through education, research, and outreach across the Caribbean. Key strategies proposed for a public education campaign include qualitative research to understand beliefs and practices, customizing information for different groups, and building partnerships between UWI and other organizations. The education process must consider factors like increasing internet and mobile access across the Caribbean and translate scientific information clearly and accessibly.

1. Continuing Public Education
Veronica Simon (PhD)
UWI Open Campus
One Environment, One Health: Informing the
Caribbean’s Response to Zika Symposium
March 4-5 2016
Hilton Hotel, Barbados

2. Evolving Concept of Continuing
Education
Traditional concept
• Post formal education
• Work skill development
• “Second chance” opportunity
New concept
• General public education
• Cradle to grave extra mural
• Globally oriented
• Focus on adaptive skills
• Personal growth
• Community development

3. The UWI’s regional reach

4. The UWI Mandate
• "to advance education and create knowledge
through excellence in teaching, research,
innovation, public service, intellectual
leadership and outreach in order to support
the inclusive (social, economic, political,
cultural, environmental) development of the
Caribbean region and beyond“

6. UWI Open Campus
Centres/Units
• Consortium for Social Development and
Research (CDSR)
• Caribbean Child Development Centre (CCDC)
• Hugh Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education
Institute (HLSTUEI),
• Social Welfare Training Centre (SWTC)
• Women and Development Unit (WAND)

7. UWI Open Campus
Country Sites
Anguilla
Antigua & Barbuda
The Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda (Virtual)
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Dominica
Grenada
Jamaica (12 sites)
Montserrat
St. Kitts & Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Vincent & the
Grenadines
Trinidad & Tobago
(18 sites)
Turks & Caicos

8. Two Key UWI Open Campus
Strategic Options
• Promote and undertake research as a vehicle
for Caribbean Development especially within
the "non-residential campus countries"
• Build strategic networks regionally and
globally to support the university's mission
and vision and core values.

9. Task Force TOR # 6
To develop and implement a comprehensive
communications strategy for ensuring that
information about the virus and its effects are
shared broadly with the Caribbean public via
radio, television, newspapers, the web and
social media platforms.

10. Continuing Public Education
Process

11. Objectives of Task Force’s Public
education thrust
i. Providing factual information based on the
latest research and investigation
ii. Enhancing information management skills
iii. Identifying existing beliefs and practices
iv. Changing behaviours/habits/lifestyles &
facilitating positive instinctive patterns
v. Encourage individual responsibility and action
vi. Promote community action

12. Strategies to Realise
Objectives
• Qualitative Research
• Demystifying/debunking
• Gaining trust
• Embracing traditional wisdom (respect of
culture)
• Creating/building on strong partnerships

13. Importance of Qualitative
Research
“Research must help us discover the deep
seated factors, the root causes, the essential
and determining characteristics, so as to change
our world, our circumstance and condition”
(Jules, 2012)

14. Respect for Cultural
Practices/Beliefs
“…strive for balance and convergence between
science and tradition... In essence science
should seek to walk with humility alongside
Nature instead of trampling on it with impunity”.
(Jules 2012)

15. Building on key partnerships
Public Sector
+
State Agencies
Private Sector
Regional
Organizations
+
Other Tertiary
Institutions
UWI Centre
+
Sites
Research + Information Sharing
Information Dissemination,
Mobilization + Feedback
Civil Society
+
Community
Organizations

16. Customization of Strategies
• Establishing target group needs
• Harnessing range of techniques &
modalities
• Tailoring information

17. Health
Professionals
Awareness of latest research-based
information
Enhanced information
management/delivery skills
Demonstration of new
behaviours/habits
Awareness of individual
responsibility
Engagement in
community action
Identification of
existing beliefs &
practices
Individual /
Community

18. `

20. Public Education Strategies
Must Consider:
• Increasing Internet usage
• Availability of relatively cheap mobile phones
• Literacy levels and French Creole language
communities
• Distinctive social media tools and their
characteristics (audience, tone, lingo)

21. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Internet Users (per 100 persons) - Selected Caribbean Countries
(source: World Bank)
Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas, The Belize
Barbados Dominica Grenada
Guyana Haiti Jamaica
St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia Trinidad and Tobago
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Virgin Islands (U.S.)

22. 0
50
100
150
200
250
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
MOBILE CELLULAR SUBSCRIPTIONS (PER 100 PEOPLE) -
SELECTED CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES
(SOURCE: WORLD BANK)Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas, The
Belize Barbados
Dominica Grenada
Guyana Haiti
Jamaica St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia Trinidad and Tobago

23. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Antigua and
Barbuda
Guyana Haiti Jamaica Trinidad and
Tobago
Literacy Rate (selected Caribbean Countries)
Source: World Bank
Data not available for Dominica, The Bahamas, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, USVI, Belize, St. Lucia,

24. Education process always
ends with:

25. Major tasks ahead
• Translating scientific language into readily
accessible and easily understood information
• Identifying realities of the contextual
framework (historical, cultural and socio-
political) through qualitative research
• Developing consistent and insistent research-
based policy guidelines/recommendations
• Creating synergies for ongoing inter-partner
dialogue

26. The Task Force must not be
perceived as a grand
gesture, but an action force
“I come from a place
that likes grandeur; it
likes large gestures; it is
not inhibited by flourish;
it is a rhetorical society;
it is a society of physical
performance; it is a
society of style”. (Sir
Derek Walcott)