By Avia Ustanny, Gleaner Writer 
A SHORTFALL IN operational funds has left several schools at the basic level scrambling for ways to survive in the new school term.
Although a record sum of $720 million was spent by the Government on subsidies to the island's 1922 registered basic schools in the 2002 to 2003 academic year, it is still only a drop in the bucket of their needs, some basic school principals are saying. Many schools have not been able to pay their bills and some have raked up hefty utility bills reaching millions of dollars.
At the Sylvia Foote infant centre near Fletcher's Land, George Sterling, executive director of the Voluntary Organisation for the Upliftment of Children (VOUCH) said that the school is still several million dollars in debt, most of which stems from unpaid utility bills and other operational expenses. The water has been cut off at the Infant School and the electricity has been suspended on several occasions since the start of the school year.
MONTHLY EXPENSES
Fees at the basic school have been raised from $1,750 each term to $6,000 each term in a bid to meet monthly expenses of $90,000 which include a lunch programme for the school's 60 students. Previous income from fees was not half of this amount. With the increase in fees, there will now be a small surplus of $10,000 which is expected to go towards reducing debt.
The outlook, however, is bleak, noted a teacher at Sylvia Foote, as parents are refusing to pay and are threatening to move their children to Pentecostal Tabernacle Basic nearby where the term fee is only $2,500 per term.
Meanwhile, other basic school operators say that the recent efforts of the Government to upgrade schools for infants, and subsidise teachers' pay are good, but that much more was needed to create a level playing field for them.
"Once a year they send us a little money for nutrition and material. This year we got nutrition but no material," complained Audrey Clue, principal of Auburn Basic in Patrick City.
Attempts by several schools to meet rising costs by raising school fees is being met by stiff resistance among parents. In Montego Bay, Carla Hill pulled her five-year-old son from a school in the centre of the city in preference for one in the rural district country community where she actually resides.
She is now paying only $1,000 per term, compared to the previous cost of $4,000, which she paid in addition to finding food for lunch, break and transportation for travel into the city. At Auburn Basic school in Patrick City, of the 150 students on roll 'most' did not turn out on Monday, January 5. The reason, the principal said she suspects, is because of the school fees.
In many basic schools, arrangements have been made to pay fees which range from $3,000 to $4,000 each term in halves and quarters, but still this is too much for some parents, some of whom cannot even afford to pay for the subsidised lunch made available on a daily basis at the schools.
At Christ the King basic school in August Town, principal Elaine Bucknor said that less than 15 per cent of students had stayed away. She, however, complained that the Government's nutrition subsidy "can't feed a child".
LUNCH SUBSIDY
At Silver Stone basic school in Portmore, Pauline Christian, principal and the basic schools' representative on the Portmore Principal's Association admitted that she used the lunch subsidy amounting to $14,000 to pay utility bills.
"We encourage parents to pay for lunch," she said. Although the meal is subsidised both in cash and kind, this is not
enough to run the school's lunch programme.
Ms. Christian said that her school also engaged in "a lot of fund-raising in order to pay the bills, compared to the infant school which gets a grant."
Principal of Auburn Basic school commented, "We have to do fund-raising and seek sponsorship. I would like larger classrooms, a photocopying machine, especially because there are lots of activities which the children can do and we have to be paying a lot of money to get this photocopying done."
The Government infant schools, she pointed out, "get better treatment" because they are linked directly to the primary schools and there is always someone over them. For the community-run basic school, she said, finding an education officer to address their needs can be something of a challenge.
Lloyd McLeod, senior education officer in the Early Childhood Education Unit of the Ministry of Education told The Sunday Gleaner that the Ministry works in partnership with the community to ensure that early childhood care, including basic school education and day care, is properly run and adequately funded.
OTHER TRAINING
Teachers in all approved basic schools, he said, have been consistently receiving their subsidies of between $8,200 to $20,000 each month, depending on their qualifications. NCTVET and other training is also being pursued on a monthly basis.
Mr. McLeod admitted, however, that in certain communities, especially poor rural ones, the community, including parents might be having a problem in paying their share.
The Ministry official said that each child in a recognised basic school is assigned a nutrition grant of $250 for the year. This is augmented with food from the World Food Programme, Food for the Poor, the UK Foundation, Women for Pace and other NGOs. For each student, a $50 material grant is also assigned.
The Ministry official admitted that he had no idea what it really took to run these basic schools, but said that research is currently being done on this.
