One of the schools accused by the Education Minister of breaching the government’s tuition fee policy has responded stating that it’s facing an uphill task in making ends meet.
Mona High School says the subvention from the Ministry of Education is not enough to offset its operational expenses.
Last September, the government removed auxillary fees and allowed schools to ask parents for voluntary contributions.
However, Principal of Mona High, Kevin Jones, says since the implementation of the policy, contributions have fallen significantly.
“Our compliance rate was 86 per cent and then last year – 2016/2017, it went down to 33 percent……”
Yesterday, Education Minister Senator Ruel Reid listed Mona High and four other schools as reportedly forcing parents and guardians to pay mandatory fees.
The others are St Andrew High, Holy Childhood High, The Queens School and St Thomas Technical High.
Meanwhile, Jones also provided details of the alleged breach of the government’s tuition fee policy.
He said a parent only had $3,000 to pay for the registration package which costs $5,000. Jones said he told the parent to return with the remainder but the parent did not return.
Jones said it was a one off incident and he is disappointed that it has painted him and the school in a negative light.
“What we do realise is that once you break up these items, what you find most of the time is that the parents do not pay for it. So the basic things that the student needs to have come September morning , you put them in a package and say to the parents, here is the bundle, you pay for it and we will take care of it,” he said.
St. Thomas Technical High
Meanwhile, the administration of the St. Thomas Technical High is seeking to justify the near 100-percent increase in the School Development Fund.
It has moved from $3,500 dollars to $6,500 .
The school’s administrators met yesterday after parents expressed alarm at the increase. Acting Vice-Principal of St. Thomas Technical, Richardo Morgan, says the fee is voluntary and used to help fund extra curricula activities.
He added that students have not been turned away or denied access due to the non-payment of fees.
Corruption and extortion
And the Education Minister is maintaining that the practice of schools forcing parents to pay voluntary contributions should be considered as corruption and extortion.
“I am reiterating that this is a deliberate act on the part of the schools to try to bypass the policy of the government that says contributions are not mandatory and I have had to use strong language to get the message across. We have been here before …. These are educational institutions. They are very literate – they know what we mean by voluntary contributions….” the Education Minister said.
Parents please start developing the habit of saving for your child/ren education from conception. This way you save slowly and you won’t have to feel strapped when the appointed times arrive. Having children is a wonderful blessing, but they do come at a cost. What a way money full dis world and it well short fi many same time.
I think if she had children it would have come out long time. It’s like Janet Jackson secret mystery daughter.
my son will be attending Mona come september, I paid $10,000 and was planning to pay another 10k in August( they give a package of between 10k & 40k to pay) the Principal told me down right that i cannot register my child until i pay the minimum 20k. I was like, the minister said we pay what we can afford. I kindly let him know im paying income tax plus education tax, his reply was that i can go to the ministry if i want. so why is he now saying people giving the school a bad light when he was fiesty enough to say to go Ministry.
The schools that increase school fees are a set a dishonest schools, principle is principle. I use to work at a high school along with the bursar, and sometimes i would go out to the main office and parents would say they cant afford 100% of the school fees and u had staff that knew those parents could be qualified for cost sharing and they did not reach out to some of those parents. I am telling u, school administration staff can be evil n vindictive, so u know i watched for a while n i decide to take my lunch time the following day n offer to help in the main office, that day eho nuh get 50% cost sharing, got 100%. This man i remember got 100% is like the man carry his farm just to thank me. The schools love money n they did not like cost sahring because the government dispense the money like a year after n the schools are money grabbing institution. With this new system niw the monies are sent to the schools before the new school term begins so any school hike dem fees the ministry needs to take very strong actions. Some a dem school yah too dammm thief n vindictive.
It takes cash to care and run a school. Just like with unu house. Then unu same one cuss and say how school pop down. $6500 is less than what most pay for hairstyle, even those who are “unemployed”
Having an education is good, but it costs nuff money (same as owning a car and a house).
Lala principle is principle, the education ministry has allocated over 2 billion dollars to subsidise school fees so no school should increase their 2017 school fees. The fees should remain as 2016, why uno so rass fool n uno sa e one a cuss government say dem nuh do nothing for uno. Goverment a ease svhool fees pressure and that is a benefit and before uno glad for it n mek sure uno kids get it, uno same one a cuss both school fees nuh high n it can raise and school need money. Some a uno is a set of damm dummies, its a damm benefit towards uno kids education, the fact is the government is giving uno a benefit, shut up uno damm mouth, accept it fi uno kids and have a wonderful day. Even if parents pay 1 million for school fees, some still goona find 5 million for that hairstyle n das how soms jamaicans role, but guess wat people will always be people, uno tek the benefit, come out a big people business because no one can rule fi uno life either. Tek the low school fees n mona high a thief n the ministry fi deal wid mona high n the rest.
The government brought these new policies to benefit students and parents, not the schools. Schools should not be extorting monies from parents and leaving students in a position where they feel unwelcomed at school because their parents can’t afford these auxiliary fees.p Any system that requires voluntary cooperation is open to fraud. Persons in charge of monies can collect from parents and say they never paid, when, in fact, they did. That is why I agree with the government that no one should pay full stop.
Exactly anon, i tell u high schools collect millions a year time, education us the biggest industry in the world for all who never know. Uno hear mi, education is the biggest industry worldwide. Do the maths, how much schools, universities we have world wide? Uno can stay dey sorry fi high schools, other than some basic schools n all age, primary school that struggles, high school mek money ok. Uno stop backing those damm thiefing high schools. The ministry name out 3 thiefing schools already, st. Andrews for girls, queens high school n dutty thiefing mona school. Uno too damm thief stop it, the ministry need to fire these principals, bursars