NORTHERN CARIBBEAN University (NCU) educator Dr. Audley Eccles says Government should abolish the cost-sharing scheme in secondary schools, and pick up the revenue fallout by charging tertiary level students a greater share of the economic cost of their tuition.
At the same time Dr. Eccles, who heads the Department of Business and Management Studies at the Mandeville-based University, called on Government and the Opposition to legislate a one-year time limit within which they will increase the education expenditure budget by 50 per cent. He also supports the idea of financing education through the issuance of bonds.
Dr. Eccles made these comments at a lecture organised by the WD Carter Library of Caribbean Economic Development at NCU last week. In addressing the topic, "Jamaica's Education System: Internal and Comparative Perspec-tives", he highlighted the progressive reduction in government expenditure on education over the past 15 years, which declined by 10.20 per cent in US dollar terms.
Dr. Eccles, whose views on cost sharing differs from his counterparts at the secondary level, proposes the expansion of the student loan facility to make more funds available to tertiary-level students.
LOANS
"The proposal is to reduce the allocation to tertiary education and significantly expand the capacity of the student loan bureau to provide loans to post-secondary level students," said the university educator. "This plan specifically requires that post-secondary level students who receive their education from local and regional institutions bear a significantly higher share of the 'near-economic' cost of their education," he added.
Dr. Eccles suggested several improvements to the student loan programme to make beneficiaries more accountable including automatic triggering of an indexed accelerated repayment scheme if beneficiaries migrate; a set of much tighter credit policies and the attendant promulgated legislation that will ensure operational efficiency; legislation to enhance the disclosure requirement about students to third parties, whether locally, regionally or internationally about their financial affairs; swifter collection processes that are fair, impartial and transparent, including students' access to review tribunals that have the weight of law to rule on matters before it and 'work-for-loan-rebatement' schemes to help
students with low-paying jobs.
The 'near-economic' cost of education should reflect, as far as is practicable, the 'appropriate economic' cost and not just the actual expenditure, Dr. Eccles warned.
