Stop charging extra school fees – Williams
MINISTER OF Education, Youth and Information Fayval Williams made it very clear on Tuesday that the Government does not, and will not, support in any shape or form the decision by rogue school administrators to charge students any kind of onerous mandatory fees in order to graduate or access online or face-toface education.
She was forced to reiterate and defend the Government’s position after Opposition Member of Parliament for St Catherine
North Central Natalie NeitaGarvey sought clarification, telling the House of Representatives that children in her constituency were being denied access to online facilities, not allowed to graduate and even kept out of school because they could not afford the fees imposed by school administrators and principals.
She questioned the rationale for the hard-line stance adopted by the schools which were demanding payment of these fees, inclusive of “involuntary contributions” from the students.
Following the official launch of the education ministry’s Seven Year/Sixth Form Pathway Programme under which fifth-form students will automatically matriculate to sixth form, Willliams said this would be accompanied by further financial disbursements to the schools, triggering some pointed questions from Neita-Garvey:
• “I am very curious that we enter this new paradigm, will Government fully cover tuition for the students going to sixth form?
• If the schools are being adequately provided for, is it that our principals and administrators are being greedy?
• Is it that they are extorting our parents and our students?”
The St Catherine North Central MP’s insistence on the need for greater clarity on the issue sparked negative reactions from some Government members of parliament, including Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett.
“Prime Minister, I think you are being unfair to the ordinary Jamaican who today would have the same questions I am asking,” she said in response to an off-mic comment from Holness. “A part of the difficulty we have, why I believe I am getting this response today is that you really are not understanding what our parents are facing out there, every term. Simple questions that will set some minds at ease and if you already have it worked out, just give us the answers.”
CHILD INITIATIVE
Earlier, Williams had disclosed that prior to the start of the school term, some 25,642 of the 40,795 students who were absent from classes for 100 days or more were located and re-engaged, through the Yard-to-Yard, Find the Child initiative which had been rolled out 18 months before. She advised that the regional support team and the school-based support teams have been working to locate and re-engage these students, with approximately 3,550 persons working directly on this task. Some 80 officers from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, 200 school resource officers from the Jamaica Constabulary Force and 3,271 school staff are engaged in this initiative.
Williams also explained following Cabinet’s approval on Monday for the administration of the Pfizer vaccines to schoolchildren between the ages of 12 and 18, that provisions would be made for those who are not inoculated.
“We will still have the online modalities, audiovisual and learning kits available to students whose parents have chosen not to let their children take the vaccination.”