 Education ministers, technical advisers, planners and staff of the Education Development Management Unit of the OECS Commission, convened for a two-day ministers of education retreat on higher education in St. Lucia. Minister of Education Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training Honorable Sean Edward welcomed the officials to St. Lucia, noting that the task at hand is an important call of duty to ultimately ensure that more people can achieve higher education learning. Central to the conversation was expanding access to tertiary education and exploring strategies for collaboration within the OECS and how institutions can continue to meet the dynamic and ever-changing demands of the 21st century. Honorable Curtis King, Minister of Education and the National Reconciliation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines said that the disruption in education due to COVID-19 puts the region in a peculiar space which calls for much reflection and this retreat will serve as an opportunity to work collectively to chatter way forward, to see the transformation of the sector within the region. Today is the first day of the session and basically what we are doing, we are more and less looking at the disruptions and trends in the education system that is pointing to the need for significant transformation to make our education more relevant to our developmental purposes across the region. Director-General of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Dr. Didikus Jules says, taking a deep dive into our challenges and sharing best practices within the sector will allow the region to offer world-class tertiary education, one which meets the needs of Caribbean people and the global job market. Out of this interaction over the next two days, we will end up with a very concrete plan of action that is going to be implemented and by the way much of that plan already exists in reality because the next session after the break is going to be looking at reports from the community colleges on innovations that they are undertaking. So the idea is simply to rationalize all of that within a framework that looks at the reinvention of education in the face of its disruption. Coming out of the two-day retreat will be the drafting of a proposed strategy for higher education in the region focused on expanding access, identifying sustainable financing mechanisms and broadening educational offerings. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, I am Danielle Dubois reporting.