Glenda Anderson, Staff reporter
Free-education, for some, brought with it concerns. "As free as it was said to be, the truth is that it doesn't reflect the true contribution of the state," one former teacher explains. He says that there were assumptions that the Government would provide for every detail of the school's expenses but often this was not, or could not, be done.
Many schools, he said, then resorted to providing for themselves through various means like fundraisers, fairs, concerts, even tuck shop or other sales.
"Many teachers were selling things and even having extra lessons." The Sunday Gleaner understands that the matter of teachers offering private lessons as a supplement to their income saw its birth during the era of free-education.
Schools which had been set up by groups or guilds of merchants and missionaries in Jamaica in the 17th and 18th century had always offered free education.
But this was to sons of the white class or wealthy 'brownings'.
Later and towards the end of the 19th century the local Government became more involved in the general administration of these schools and their Trusts and supported them with grants-in-aid.
Other non-whites and children of the poor could then gain entry through special scholarships. This was extended under a policy of the 1957 Norman Manley Government which introduced the Free Place Awards through Common Entrance Examinations.
This saw an annual awards of free and grant places, and scholarships.
Parents whose children had been awarded grant places still had to meet other school costs.
The mid-1960s saw the building of several junior secondary schools by the Jamaica Labour Party. Again access to these schools was free and without exams.
This was then extended to grant-in-aid schools across the country as outlined in a presentation paper by Minister of Education Florizel Glasspole in 1973.
"From September 1973 pupils in grant aided high schools will not be required to pay tuition fees. From September 1974 all other fees including games, library, laboratory, etc. will be abolished and a new system of financing these schools will be worked out.
"Entry to all secondary schools will therefore be on a non-selective basis, will be for a period of five years and will be entirely free."
Primary education in public schools was already free.
May 1, 1973 Prime Minister Michael Manley formally announced in a budget presentation that education would be free to the university level.
But this didn't change the reality for many school administrations with unpaid bills. Many simply adapted.
"There were even some schools as I remember which added a charge, which could not really be called a 'fee' because there was to be no 'fee' but they needed to raise funds," a former teacher remembers.
"A number of schools like some primary schools would not have been able to raise these funds. They would have had it much harder than the traditional schools," he said.
Retired infant school principal, 70-year-old Verna Gillings, says "the Government did all the funding, took care of things like the feeding grant, sanitation grant, everything, the problem was that the grant came late. Sometimes at the end of the term, the grant still didn't come. So you had to do things to help until then. I never closed the canteen all day and I use to encourage the parents to send something for the canteen, yam, foodstuff or even wood for the fire. Everybody pooled to help."
"Practically every school as I remember had a charge," says one other headmistress who retired after serving for 12 years in a grant-aided high school (1976 -1988).
"For example there would be a cover charge for insurance..., Parent/ Teachers Association (PTA) fees were even bigger than the regular charge because under the arrangement you were not supposed to be asking a fee, but the parents were asked to contribute. The only problem was that you couldn't really force anybody to pay.
"The Government gave a per capita grant which was supposed to pay for everything but when it couldn't cover everything, that's when the schools had to find ways to help themselves."
But there were positives according to some former students, like the fact that they were regularly provided with free uniform material, and nutrition products.
Mrs. Gillings remembers too a high spirit of goodwill among both parents and staff members where the school and community were much closer joined.
"Jamaica has lost the goodwill. The effort and pride that our parents use to put out is no longer there. Is priority bothering us now."
Free education was also extended to tertiary level students by Prime Minster Manley's budget speech.
It was an offer which was welcomed by many aspiring scholars like Nicola Scott-Bonnick who received tertiary education in the period,
"In the 70s most persons felt that they could not go on to tertiary education." It was an option she said "only if you were wealthy or 'high brown'."
"I remember with my older brother my father said he could only promise him a year. We always knew we wanted to go on to tertiary education but it just looked impossible. When 'free education' came it opened up a whole new world. For me it opened up a new promise to life. It made a great difference to many young persons. It was just fantastic," she said.
A young lawyer she credits her chance at higher studies and a career to the period.
"I've always felt that if it weren't for that time (free tertiary education) I would never have been able to do law. There were scholarships but these were for the very few who were very 'bright'. I've always thought of myself as an average student and so it was really limiting for a whole lot of persons who were middle range or who had not yet come into our full potential."
But campus life has had its sacrifices.
"I went to school with guys who had porridge for the entire three years and I knew for a fact that it was particularly hard for persons who had to go overseas to study on the other UWI campuses. America or study at universities overseas was not in for a teacher or parson's children. You just looked longingly on."
But the administrations had other general problems especially in primary education which had always enjoyed free education. Minister Glasspole cited several crucial areas.
"Primary education is critically handicapped by irregularity of attendance, gross overcrowding, vestigial equipment and instructional material and inadequate numbers of teachers trained and untrained."
In addition an 'estimated 71,500 young people 6-15 years-old were not in school, confirmed a Jamaica Education Survey.
This had been prepared in the mid-70s by a joint team from the Planning Unit of the Ministry of Education and an external group of six consultants.
It found other problems like the 'need for physical improvement and expansion, and shortage of trained teachers and professionals'. The major weakness was a 'general neglect and poor quality of primary schools.'
By the 1980s education statistics showed that out of a 96 per cent enrolment at the primary level, attendance rate was 77 per cent, with 71 per cent for the secondary level. This from an enrolment high of 86 per cent in secondary schools across the island.
In areas like Trelawny and St. Thomas, a programme of compulsory education in primary schools even had to be implemented to bolster attendance rates.
Political columnist, Dr. D.K. Duncan, in an earlier Gleaner report writes that, 'The stage of full access to primary, secondary and tertiary education 'free education' prevailed until February, 1986, when the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government under Prime Minister Edward Seaga, introduced a CESS on fees for students at the tertiary level.' The cess still remains in force while secondary education students contribute to their education through a Government cost-sharing programme.
Today a call for a return to the provision of free secondary education has been welcomed and rebuffed by varying sectors including the present Minister of Education Burchell Whiteman of the Peoples National Party (PNP) but it may yet be the rallying call of a future political manifesto.
