IT WILL take a maximum of $70 million from the budget of the Ministry of Education to finance the Government's commitment to providing some (Caribbean Examinations Council) CXC subjects free of cost to thousands of students this year, Education Minister Burchell Whiteman has said.
The Ministry is also "prepared to look at" including private students in the deal eventually and will, in the long run, expand the number of subjects that the Government pays for - Spanish being the next best bet.
The current of-fer, however, will only apply to students who have been approved by their schools to sit the examinations.
"The commitment has been made and we will do it," Minister Whiteman told The Gleaner at a press conference at his offices yesterday. "We're not making any promises about taxing you any further because we don't deal with those things right now. Some provisions were made, it's coming from the Ministry's budget, we have no difficulty with that at all," he said.
Other plans for revenue in the long run include continued tightening of the tax net to get more tax evaders compliant as well as waiting for growth in the economy that is expected to cover the additional revenue, according to Minister of State in the Education Ministry Fitz Jackson.
"The Government has been seeking, and I think successfully so, to be fiscally responsible and to encourage the general population to be compliant in respect of taxation," Mr. Whiteman said.
"There are still loopholes in the tax system. There are still people who evade the payment and we have to use our best efforts to bring them into the tax net. We have to be efficient, compliant and make the investment in the most strategically important way that we can."
Minister Whiteman said that he did not expect the decision to cause any school to underprovide for students, not teach well and not require high standards because the Government is paying. In fact he's encouraging beneficiaries and the schools to strengthen performance in the delivery of the curriculum in these areas (English, mathematics, information technology and a science subject).
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announced Sunday that the Government was committed to paying the examination fees for students sitting some subjects at the CXC level starting this academic year, and the forgiveness of student loans for teachers in training. He also reiterated that they would gradually phase out the education cost-sharing programme and pay tuition fees in full for needy students by 2005.
He said Government would begin a gradual phase-out of the cost-sharing programme next year by increasing its allocation to the programme and decreasing the amount to be paid by each parent.
The matter of Government funding for CXC has been before Cabinet for some time and came to the fore last year when the Government had to step in to subsidise the increase in CXC entry fees.
At that time, the Government took the decision to provide the subsidy for all entrants to CXC, private candidates as well as students in school.
