It is imperative that nations large, small, developed, developing, and under developed invest in their young people’s education, especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics plus computing (STEM+C). STEM+C is the foundation of todays’ economy.

This study examines secondary STEM+C education in the United Kingdom (UK) and the English speaking Caribbean (ESC). It assesses their similarities and differences through the offerings of STEM+C subjects and exit examinations administered to 11 graders (15-16 year-olds) as well as the UK and ESC performance on the 2018 and 2022 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) means scores in mathematics and science. It also examines the implications of those STEM+C subjects for national development and personal growth. It is acknowledged that the UK is a developed nation and the ESC nations are not. Therefore, the UK is used as the reference nation to determine the level of progress ESC nations have made or need to make in STEM+C education if they aspire to achieve developed nations’ status or technological self-efficacy and self-sufficiency. This work is significant as it can serve to bring awareness to ESC nations’ leaders, professionals, decision makers, policy makers, and other stakeholders on what is needed to advance the STEM+C infrastructure within the K-11 educational ecosystem.

Sources of data and information for this study include STEM+C subjects and their syllabi descriptions offered in both the ESC and UK secondary education systems, 2018 and 2022 OECD PISA surveys and mean scores, and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the UK’s General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)/International GCSE (IGCSE) examinations statistics for 2019-2023. It should be noted that GCSE and IGCSE are equivalent. Tables were generated from the data and information found in the aforementioned sources. For the purposes of comparing examination results Antigua and Barbuda (CSEC) and Jamaica (PISA) were used ass proxies for the ESC.

The results showed that while many secondary STEM+C education subjects offered in the UK and ESC share essentially the same content (e.g., general science, general mathematics, and geography), the performance of UK students on the GCSE/IGCSE is notably better than the performance of ESC students on the CSEC in terms of the percentages of student passes over the five year period of 2019-2023. The ESC performance on 2022 PISA was similarly relatively lower. Moreover, compared to the UK, the ESC’s CSEC does not provide for curricula in computer science and engineering. The lack of exposure of ESC students to instruction in computer science and engineering is a problem. This problem is compounded by a relatively less than desirable performance in mathematics over the studied period. It found that the ESC investment on education for 6-15 year-olds was about six times less than the UK. This needss to be improved, the undesirable performance in mathematics needs to be judiciously addressed, and subjects in computer science and engineering need to be introduced to expose students early to the many career possibilities in STEM+C.

Keywords: STEM, PISA, Secondary Education.