Sint Maarten’s overall unemployment rate and youth unemployment rate have significantly increased due to the shutting down of tourism businesses. Additionally, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently noted that there is a mismatch between the country’s labor supply skills and the skills needed by employers. This economic context, combined with higher levels of violence affecting adolescents in the aftermath of the hurricane, makes the enabling environment for youth challenging.

Hurricane Irma significantly affected the education sector’s infrastructure and negatively impact the quality of learning environments, particularly for children with emotional disorders and physical disabilities. The education system struggled with rebuilding schools after the Hurricane. Public spending is almost exclusively allocated to teacher salaries and recurrent costs. New school construction and capital expenditures are limited. In addition, irreparable damage to Sint Maarten’s Philipsburg Jubilee Library (PJL) has constrained cultural activities, learning, and community-building initiatives.

A cohesive information system is critical for improving the management of the education sector. Centralized information like overall learning outcome data is needed for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports to improve learning outcomes for students from vulnerable families and overcome education inequities.