Port of Spain Administrative Area. There were 17,957 students enrolled in primary schools and 15,641 enrolled in secondary school. In secondary schools, 7,567 were male and 8,074 were female. Education is free and compulsory up to secondary school. Port of Spain school leavers, as citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, do not pay tuition to study at local & regional public and private tertiary institutions except for graduate studies where they pay a heavily subsidised fee. There are several prominent tertiary institutions in Port of Spain and environs, in particular the St. Augustine campus of the three-campus, Caribbean-wide University of the West Indies, which
History of the Caribbean two-thirds of Hispaniola were conquered by Haitian forces in 1821. In 1844, the newly formed Dominican Republic declared its independence from Haiti. The nations bordering the Caribbean in Central America gained independence with the 1821 establishment of the First Mexican Empire—which at that time included the modern states of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The nations bordering the Caribbean in South America also gained independence from Spain in 1821 with the establishment of Gran Colombia—which comprised the modern states of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama. Cuba and Puerto Rico remained as Spanish colonies until the Spanish–American