It was a year of change and celebration in Cayman’s education system from the old to the new, with UCCI marking its 50th anniversary in 2025 and new schools including CF High School and Kiddiewinks Garden playschool opening their doors for the first time.
With the new government tackling the controversial Cayman Brac high school project and planning permission granted for a new pre-school in Savannah, it looks like education in the Cayman Islands will continue to make the headlines in 2026.
UCCI’s 50th birthday
As part of the University College of the Cayman Islands’ milestone year, which has the theme ’50 Years Strong: Honouring the Past, Inspiring the Future’, the university college planned a year-long series of celebrations, including a gala dinner, a commemorative 50th anniversary yearbook, a series of lectures, a community marathon and bestowing four honorary doctorates upon individuals who have shaped the country’s educational, cultural and social landscape.
Cayman’s high schools were also making the news in 2025. John Gray high school recently completed its new state-of-the-art sports facility, known as Project C, the latest phase to be completed in the school’s multi-million-dollar expansion project that has been in development for over 15 years.
The newly completed facility, located at the former Cayman Islands Further Education Centre campus on Walkers Road, includes wide array of top-tier sporting venues, including a full-sized football and cricket field, alongside dedicated courts for basketball, netball and pickleball.
New schools
The opening of CF High School, newly built in Buttonwood Park off the Linford Pierson Highway in George Town, brought its own ethos and approach to schooling, including aggression detectors, a cellphone ban on campus and a philosophy of kindness combined with working hard. The new school already has more than 165 students enrolled, over half of whom are Caymanian and will be able cater to a maximum of 225 students, with just 15 children in each class.
Another new school opened to cater for children at the very start of their educational journey. Kiddiewinks Garden Playschool in West Bay was officially opened by Premier André Ebanks in August, the second school from sisters Jennifer Stein and Carrie Chaloner, who also own Sprogs Garden Playschool located on Walkers Road in George Town. The premier gave his vote of approval on a tour around the ‘play-based’ school, calling it “a tremendous project for the district.”
Inside homeschooling
It wasn’t just traditional schooling which made the headlines though, as Cayman Compass reported during the year. Homeschooling in Cayman continued to grow, with 136 pupils now being homeschooled.
Many of them attended a graduation ceremony at the end of May which not only gave them a chance to catch up with friends but to celebrate the many achievements and activities of homeschooled children on island, from taking part in sport, music, drama, debating tournaments and competitions, as well as field trips and community hangouts, board-game groups and escape rooms.
Cayman Brac high school
Education was one of the key themes of April’s general election with the cost of the new Cayman Brac high school seen as a bellweather theme of spiralling costs in the incumbent government.
After ministers in the newly election coalition government went on a fact-finding mission to the school’s construction site on Cayman Brac’s Bluff, Education Minister Rolston Anglin announced he was cutting $6million off the cost of the new Cayman Brac High School by ditching plans for a new gymnasium and its connecting walkways.
The budget for the new school had been approaching $59 million. Anglin later told Parliament that he would not have approved the design for the school had he been minister at the time but said that construction was too far advanced to make any more changes at this time.
While parties on opposing side of the Parliamentary chamber might not agree on the cost of the new school, it was agreed that a new school was needed for Cayman Brac, a position backed up by the discovery of asbestos in Layman E. Scott Sr. which was dealt with over the summer.
Exam results
The end of the school year and release of exam results from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) was given extra significance this year as the ceremony was hosted by the Cayman Islands, the first time it had ever done so.
Cayman Islands students recorded strong results in the region at the CSEC level, with a pass rate in English increasing from 71% to 75%, and mathematics improving from a 40% to a 43% pass rate – although that was lower than the pass rate of 47% in 2023.
Students made a particularly good showing in information technology, recording a pass rate of 98% and grade 1s increasing from 30% to 47%. The pass rate for industrial technology (building) dropped from 98% to 92%, but the percentage of top grades increased from 7% to 37%.
Of particular interest was the announcement that students will be allowed to use artificial intelligence in their school assessments from next year, while sticking to certain rules and guidelines, a sign that AI is here to stay.
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