OPPOSITION LEADER Edward Seaga reiterated yesterday he was not only holding Government to an agreement which would increase funding to education from 10 to 15 per cent within five years but would demand strict accounting of how the money will be spent.
Last month, the Government indicated its support for a proposal tabled by Mr. Seaga for the increase of funds to the Ministry of Education. The increase will be made incrementally over the next five years.
"We got them to commit to increase the budget over five years by one per cent each year... Next year, we think that there will be an additional $2 billion or more available for education and I don't intend to leave at the level of a pledge. I gave notice already that when the budget is prepared.
WANTS ACCOUNT MADE UP
"I want an account to be made up for that $2 billion to see that we got it and see how it will be spent because there are a lot of things to spend it on," said Mr. Seaga, who was invited to give greetings and present prizes to over 100 students at yesterday's awards ceremony at the Tivoli Gardens High School in his constituency, West Kingston. Stu-dents received awards, trophies and medals for excelling in academics and other areas.
Mr. Seaga also described as "not fair" consequences of the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) which, he said, took many bright and promising students, nurtured by primary schools in inner cities and other communities, and sent them to traditional high schools.
He said the diverting of bright and promising students to traditional or brand name high schools helped to bring up the performance of traditional schools while bringing down non-traditional schools' performance.
He said 92 out of every 100 students in non-traditional high schools failed CXC Mathematics and 70 out of every 100 students in these schools who sit CXCs fail to come out with a single pass.
STUDENTS TAKEN AWAY
"...all of those who show any promise at all, who get good results are taken away from the region where the primary school teachers laboured to bring them up to that point and sent off to the brand name schools so that the brand name schools get the result of the work done by the primary school teachers in this area and other areas like these," Mr. Seaga said. He said traditional schools get the benefits, good passes and results.
"But because the traditional high schools get students who would do well anywhere, schools like Tivoli do not do well. We cannot continue that way. We must be able to reach a stage where all schools have good education, quality education so you don't need to move students out of the area and send them elsewhere," he said to applause.
He commended Tivoli students who performed well and warned that while "It's not everybody who is going to make it through academics" students should not "rely on being a dee jay. Don't rely on being a good football player. Rely on what you get from doing school work because that is the surest way for you to be successful."
