ST. JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbuda — Prime Minister Gaston Browne has publicly confirmed what many residents have feared for months: the national administration is still struggling to attract qualified teachers and police officers willing to relocate to and work on the smaller sister island of Barbuda.
The prime minister brought the long-running staffing crisis to light during a recent episode of his weekly public radio broadcast, where he was responding to constituent concerns over persistent understaffing at Barbuda Secondary School, most notably a widely reported vacancy for a full-time mathematics educator.
Speaking candidly to listeners, Browne admitted that convincing public sector workers to take up postings in Barbuda has proven one of the more persistent challenges for his administration. “In all fairness, it has been a challenge getting policemen and teachers to work in Barbuda,” he stated.
While recruitment gaps for these critical roles impact both of the nation’s two main islands, the problem is far more pronounced in Barbuda, Browne explained. The island’s small total population limits the pool of locally trained, qualified candidates for teaching and law enforcement positions, leaving most openings dependent on attracting workers from the larger island of Antigua or overseas.
The mathematics teaching shortage at Barbuda Secondary School emerged as a public controversy just weeks ahead of the start of the 2024 academic term, prompting widespread calls for government action to resolve the gap before classes began. Browne pushed back on framing the issue as an isolated failure for Barbuda, noting that the lack of qualified math instructors is a long-standing challenge affecting schools across the entire country.
“I’ve always had an issue with attracting math teachers in both islands,” he said, emphasizing that the barrier becomes even greater when trying to fill a posting on the smaller island.
The prime minister also called for collaboration from local stakeholders to address the crisis, noting that Barbuda’s Member of Parliament Trevor Walker and the regional Barbuda Council could lend support to the effort by identifying suitable local candidates. Browne argued that the staffing shortage should be approached as a shared community priority rather than being leveraged as a political talking point.
Even with this call for collaboration, the ultimate responsibility for ensuring public schools and law enforcement agencies are fully staffed rests with the national government and national education authorities, a reality Browne did not dispute.
Industry analysts and local observers point to a set of unique structural barriers that make working in Barbuda less attractive for workers based in Antigua. Relocation requires not just a willingness to leave established social and professional networks, but also securing affordable, suitable housing on an island with limited residential inventory. New arrivals must also adjust to the slower pace of a small close-knit community and the more limited range of commercial and public services available compared to the larger, more developed Antigua.
For law enforcement, consistent staffing is particularly critical: officers posted to Barbuda are responsible for maintaining 24/7 public safety coverage across the entire island and responding rapidly to any emergencies that arise, so understaffing directly risks community safety.
Notably, Browne made no new policy announcements during the radio interview to address the crisis. He did not reveal how many total teaching and police positions remain vacant across Barbuda, nor did he outline any new strategies the government plans to deploy to attract workers from Antigua or other regions. No new financial incentives, housing support packages, or specialized location allowances were proposed to encourage workers to accept Barbuda postings, and the prime minister offered no clear timeline for filling the open mathematics role or any other outstanding vacancies.