THE EDITOR, Sir:
I AM really saddened to read about students not being permitted to write their CXC exams because they do not have the money to pay for the subjects.
That was the case in the 1960s when I went to school and as a youngster, I thought it was evil then. Today I think it is reprehensible that it is still going on.
Young people cannot get far in today's society without a good education and the primary way of measuring their efforts to educate themselves is with the prescribed exams. If money is the determining factor for validating a young person's efforts, then young people whose parents are poor may be doomed to being categorised as un-educated because their parents cannot afford the price it costs to validate their education. That is unfair and wrong.
The government/taxpayers should at least cover the cost of the subjects if the students are deemed qualified by a fair pre-screening process. Society owes its young, rich and poor, an opportunity. Education is the great equaliser.
I am, etc.,
EARL LALOR
lalor5569@rogers.com
Toronto
Canada
Via Go-Jamaica
