Education in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is neither compulsory nor free, although children are usually in school until the age of 15. In 1998, the gross primary enrollment rate was 90.5 percent, and the net primary enrollment rate was 83.5 percent.

Primary school attendance rates were unavailable for St. Vincent and the Grenadines as of 2001. While enrollment rates indicate a level of commitment to education, they do not always reflect children’s participation in school. According to the government, cases in which children leave school before the age of 16 are investigated.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (ⁱ/seɪnt ˈvɪnsənt ænd ðə ɡrɛnəˈdiːnz/) is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Its 389-square-kilometre (150 sq mi) territory consists of the main island of Saint Vincent and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines, which are a chain of smaller islands stretching south from Saint Vincent Island to Grenada.

To the north of Saint Vincent lies Saint Lucia, to the east Barbados. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is densely populated (over 300 inhabitants/km²) with its 120,000 people.

Its capital is Kingstown, also its main port. The country has a French and British colonial history and is now part of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, CARICOM, the Commonwealth of Nations and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.

The island now known as Saint Vincent was originally named Hairouna ("The Land of the Blessed") by the native Caribs. The Caribs aggressively prevented European settlement on Saint Vincent until 1719. Prior to this, formerly enslaved Africans, who had either been shipwrecked or who had escaped from Barbados, Saint Lucia and Grenada and sought refuge in mainland Saint Vincent, intermarried with the Caribs and became known as Garifuna or Black Caribs.

The Grenadines is a Caribbean island chain of over 600 islands in the Windward Islands.

They are divided between the island nations of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. They lie between the islands of Saint Vincent in the north and Grenada in the south. Neither Saint Vincent nor Grenada are Grenadine islands. The islands north of the Martinique Channel belong to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the islands south of the channel belong to Grenada.

These islands make up the Grenadines Parish

Carriacou and Petite Martinique are dependencies of Grenada.

Coordinates: 12°40′N 61°15′W / 12.667°N 61.25°W / 12.667; -61.25

Ralph Everard Gonsalves (born 8 August 1946), also known as "Comrade Ralph", is the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and leader of the Unity Labour Party (ULP). Gonsalves became Prime Minister after his party won a majority government in the 2001 general election. He is the first Prime Minister from the newly constructed ULP, following a merger of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Labour Party and the Movement for National Unity.

Gonsalves has been Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of North Central Windward since 1994.^{[citation needed]} In 1994, upon the formation of the Unity Labour Party he became deputy leader, and became leader of the party in 1998.

Gonsalves' ULP won another majority government in 2005 general election, winning 12 seats.

On 13 December 2010, Gonsalves' ULP was re-elected, showing a decrease in the popular vote and winning 8 seats.

Gonsalves was born in Colonarie, Saint Vincent, British Windward Islands to Theresa (née Francis) and Alban Gonsalves. He attended Colonarie Roman Catholic School, and later the St Vincent Grammar School. Gonsalves then enrolled at the University of the West Indies, where he completed a bachelor's degree in economics. He later returned there to earn a master's degree in government, which he completed in 1971. In 1974 he completed a PhD in government at the University of Manchester. Gonsalves was called to the degree of utter barrister at Gray’s Inn in London in 1981.