Education played a vital role in the shifting nature of colonial administration and the reshaping of colonial relations in the nineteenth century. The activities that occurred within classrooms shaped the behaviour and identity of children towards an imperial norm while beyond the school walls the changing management structure tied various local actors together within state regulations. This paper examines the process of centralising education in Trinidad. While influenced by the model of nationalised education emerging in white-settler colonies, the constellation of local relations resulted in something uniquely different. Reforms in Trinidad demonstrate how colonial governance was reshaped by co-opting non-state actors into its functioning but had to ensure that those actors maintained their field of independent actions to do so. While educational reforms took a unique path in Trinidad, the expanding influence from the colonial centre eventually shaped the education system to align with other systems elsewhere in the Empire.