Edmond Campbell, News Coordinator

The political chess game deepened yesterday when the Portia Simpson Miller-led administration made the latest move in the education debate, telling Jamaicans that no child who could not afford the tuition fee should be "questioned or subjected to any form of embarrassment" by school administrators because his or her tuition fee has not been paid.

Leader of the Opposition, Bruce Golding, has put education on the agenda, as one of his party's major planks in the upcoming election, promising to remove all tuition fees for secondary-level students at the start of the new academic year in September.

Cost-sharing fees by November

But in its latest move, the Government is stating that by November, it will pay over to schools the matching cost-sharing fees for those children whose parents have not paid the fees.

"The Government will front load 50 per cent of its share of cost-sharing, amounting to $350 million, in July, to facilitate schools being ready for September," Information Minister Donald Buchanan said yesterday at a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.

Asked whether the Government's announcement was a response to the Opposition's proposal, Mr. Buchanan said Cabinet had set up a committee to review tuition fees and it submitted a report on Monday.

He told journalists that the total cost for tuition for a child per year was $80,000, of which parents were required to pay $5,000.

However, Mr. Buchanan stressed that if parents were unable to find that amount, no child should be prevented from attending school.

The Government also reconfirmed yesterday that it would continue to pay for four CSEC subjects - information technology, a science subject, mathematics and English language.

Mr. Buchanan said the Government would also pay for three CAPE subjects.