Rein in rogue schools profiting from graduation blitz

IAM writing in response to George Headley Primary principal Aretha Willie’s recent letter titled ‘Misplaced energy around graduation frenzy’. She indeed touched on several points, especially that a lot of parents have their priorities wrong. Re-education of the society in respect of values and attitudes would go a long way in address parents’ misplaced energies.

I must also commend Mrs Willie on her continued drive in transforming the leadership and administrative capacity of the staff at George Headley Primary since her secondment from the Ministry of Education.

SILLY SEASON

However, I am hoping that Mrs Willie would speak later to the matter where some of her administrative colleagues use the graduation silly season as a feeding tree to make up for budget deficits and other expenditure already covered by the ministry. I am quite pleased that several parents have got a grip of the situation and have challenged the status quo where schools charge exorbitant amounts to host these ceremonies.

Several parents, in recent times, have requested detailed breakdowns of graduation costs from their respective schools, to which they were unable to provide any adequate justification to the items listed and associated cost.

SCRUTINY NEEDED

Our pharaohs down at Heroes Circle, through their education officers, need to scrutinise these costs closely in order to prevent embarrassment on the school and ministry when they are unable to justify what they are charging parents for.

Some of these rogue administrators need to be reined in, especially during the graduation silly season.

I, again, fully support Mrs Willie’s call for a clearly articulated policy document from the Ministry of Education, which would go a far way in addressing some of the issues surrounding school-leaving exercises.

The education system in Jamaica is being sidetracked and hijacked by rogue elements and misplaced agendas.