( L - R ) Parchment, Williams and Morgan

Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

Board chairman of Jamaica College, R. Danny Williams, has called for an increase in school fees at the secondary level, arguing that the lack of resources was adversely affecting the operations of these institutions.

"I wish to request that school fees be taken out of the political arena because when you talk about $8,000 a year for school fees, and that has not been increased for several years, it is wrong," Mr. Williams said.

He was addressing an Editors' Forum yesterday at The Gleaner's head office, on North Street, Kingston.

Continuing cost sharing

Both the governing People's National Party (PNP) and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party are at odds over the financing of education at the secondary level; the latter insisting that education would be free, if it is elected to office. However, the Portia Simpson Miller administration has insisted on continuing with cost sharing, whereby parents are required to pay a portion of the cost of tuition.

"I wish our political parties would both rise above the politics and come to an understanding as to what is a reasonable level (of fee)," said Mr. Williams.

Noting that the current school fees are unrealistic and that many schools are operating at substandard levels, Mr. Williams stressed that even a minimal increase would have a dramatic difference on the school system.

Donna Parchment, board chairman at the St. Elizabeth-based Hampton School, supports the call for an increase in school fees.

"We ought to come up with what is a rationale cost of education and make a determination as to who will meet the elements of cost and what their responsibilities should be,"said Parchment.

New vision

Meanwhile, management consultant, Dr. Henley Morgan, who is board chairman of Trench Town High School, St. Andrew, said a lack of resources should not be used as an obstacle for reforming the education system.

"We need to stop saying what we can't afford," he said. "You have to come up with a vision of what we want, you have to say how we are going to get there and you have to say how much we need to do it - to put fuel in the tank and then we have to say how we are going to raise those resources."

The current education budget is $35.1 billion, or 11.2 per cent of total national expenditure, which was budgeted for the financial year 2006-2007.

Both the JLP and the PNP promised tuition-free education in the run-up to the 2002 general elections, with Prime Minister P.J. Patterson promising an abolition of tuition fees by 2005. The PNP has since said it would not be able to honour that commitment.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com