THE EDITOR, Sir:
I BENEFITED from free education between 1974 and 1977 when I succeeded in the Grade Nine Achievement Test and moved from a Secondary School to a Technical High School. This was a blessing for me because my family existed on prayers and my mother's determination to "fight life till she drop."
By 1977 I returned to my secondary school as an assistant teacher in the Jamaica Youth Corps programme, yet another blessing in my humble opinion.
At my secondary school I was surprised at the disrepair the school had fallen into. The most tragic however, was the large-scale absence of desks and chairs for use by the students. In many instances, the students had to stand through all classes, throughout the day, there was a smattering of chairs which the lucky few may get through ingenious means; they were, however, not lucky to get both desk and chair as the desks were used to seat four with one person's back sometimes facing the board...well, let's say the head of the class.
I thought that the students might just as well sit on the floor. I thought further, that we could photograph the situation and send it to the Ministry for their information. The then principal, who was sorely put out by my actions and intentions, let me know that the situation prevailed, not because of lack of knowledge, but lack of financial resources.
I learnt then, that nothing in life is free.
My point is that, cost-sharing is, at this time, a logical option for some reasons as follows:
As it stands now, some schools have to carry out different activities to shore up their budget in order to provide the quality of education they want to offer their students.
There may be people in this society who do not mind (and can actually manage) to bear the cost for their children's education. Indiscriminate application of free education may therefore be redundant.
There may be people who do not mind paying a charge for a service that they can identify such as school fees to the school, rather than increased taxes on income or consumption.
We should probably try to avoid giving anybody a sense that there is no cost to something as valuable as education, lest the resource run to waste like stand-pipe water.
Free education does not guarantee attendance at schools, availability of uniforms, lunch or bus fare.
I am, etc.,
JOAN GRANT
Kingston 3
