Tag Archives: Study in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

The territory includes the island of Saint Vincent (located in the southern sector of the Lesser Antilles, in the Windward Islands, and separated from the island of Saint Lucia by an arm of the sea called Saint Vincent Passage), and the northern section of the Grenadines archipelago (Grenadines), which includes the Bequia, Mustique, Mayreau, Canouan, Union Island and other smaller islands (the southern section is a dependency of the island of Grenada). Saint Vincent’s relationship with the colonizers began relatively late: in fact, its residents, the Caribs, they managed for a long time to keep Europeans away thanks to their determination and their aggressiveness. In 1675, instead, a group of Africans was welcomed, who arrived in those waters as slaves and escaped from a Dutch ship that had been shipwrecked. The blacks soon merged with the natives, until, at the beginning of the 18th century, the French were allowed to build a first settlement on the island. Later passed to the English, Saint Vincent saw the original population disappear rapidly. According to COUNTRYAAH, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines is a nation in North America, the capital city of which is Kingstown. The latest population of Saint Vincent and The Grenadines is 110,951.

THE COUNTRY
Independent since October 1979, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth; head of state is the British sovereign, represented by a governor general, who exercises executive power together with the Council of Ministers. Legislative power rests with the unicameral Parliament, whose members are partly appointed and partly elected by universal suffrage for 5 years. The system of law in use is based on the Common Law British. Justice is administered by the Supreme Court of the Eastern Caribbean based in Saint Lucia. The death penalty is in effect. The defense of the country does not provide for the deployment of regular armed forces, but there is a Police Force and a Coast Guard. Primary education is free but not compulsory: school starts at the age of 5 and ends at 11. Secondary education begins at the age of 12 and is structured in two cycles, the first lasting five years and the second two. Government commitment in secondary school is limited: the majority of institutions are in fact confessional; illiteracy is still particularly widespread among the population: in 2003, the recorded rate was 11.9%.

GEOGRAPHY
Both Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are volcanic in nature; Saint Vincent is crossed for its entire length by a mountainous ridge and culminates to the N in the Soufrière volcano (1234 m), repeatedly active: even in 1979 its eruption caused very serious damage to crops. The climate is tropical, with minimum temperatures of 18 ºC and maximum of 32 ºC; rainfall increases with altitude, passing from an average of 1500 mm per year on the coast to 4000 mm in the higher inland areas. Numerous watercourses cut the mountain slopes, giving rise to small coastal alluvial plains downstream.