Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter

CONCERNED PARENTS and teachers from St. George's College are appealing to the Ministry of Education for its intervention into the school board's selection and pending appointment of a new female principal. They have also raised questions over the selection process.

A parent from among a group of concerned parents, teachers and past students told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday that the group had reason to believe that the preferred candidate who is yet to be named had been selected because of religious bias.

"She is from a solid Catholic family and that to us is the deciding factors into who becomes principal of the school," claimed the disgruntled parent, who requested not to be named for this article.

"Being a Catholic cannot supersede your competence and your ability to run a school," the parent added.

St. George's College was founded in 1850 by Jesuits and until September last year, when girls were admitted into the sixth-form for the first time, was an all-boy institution.

NEW DIMENSION TO THE SAGA

As a result of this new dimension to the saga that came public late last week, the concerned stakeholders are soliciting the intervention of the ministry.

The group reportedly has contacted the office of education minister, Maxine Henry-Wilson, seeking her intervention.

"What we want is for them (the ministry) to hear our concerns in terms of making that decision to accept the recommendation of the board," the parent said.

The parent argued that the concern was not over gender, but rather that the process did not sufficiently accommodate the competent males who would have been interested in the post. "Males are fading all over the society, don't reduce their access to a positive male role model by one, all because the woman is Catholic."

In the interim, Courtney Currie, president of the Jamaican Chapter of the St. George's College Old Boys' Association, refused to comment until the appointment process is completed.

"The process is not completed so it would be unprofessional of me to make a comment at this time," he said.

This will be the second principal appointed in the last two years, following Lloyd Fearon's resignation in 2004, shortly after the school received a grade 'F' in the controversial study of the 2003 CXC results by Dr. Dennis Minott, a member of the Government-commissioned Task Force on Education.

The outgoing principal is Dr. Fred Kennedy.