We would have thought that by now the bigger picture, or even the outlines of it, would have been drilled into the minds of the leadership of Jamaica's teaching profession - part of the elite of the education system.

They seem, however, to remain glued to the sketches and the doodles, judging from the action of the Association of Principals and Vice-Principals. So, last Thursday, this association boycotted a meeting with Education Minister Andrew Holness and Prime Minister Bruce Golding to discuss strategies for funding education in Jamaica, including the sometimes-contentious system of auxiliary fees employed by schools to buttress the subventions provided by the Government.

The principals stayed away, we are told by their president Michael Stewart, because they construed statements by Mr Golding to be attacks on their integrity "and they are really hurting at this time".

Source of the hurt

The source of this trauma was the prime minister's response in Parliament a fortnight ago to complaints by an Opposition Member of Parliament that some schools had hiked non-compulsory fees beyond the affordability of many parents. If the fees are not paid, students are being turned away from school, was the claim. This seemed to fly in the face of the Government's policy of free tuition up to high school, a campaign pledge that helped the Jamaica Labour Party win last September's general election.

Mr Golding's response was that the administration was not "going to allow schools to find some other way of extorting". Teachers complained that they were being branded extortionists, which caused Mr Holness to arrange last Thursday's meeting.

Admittedly, the PM might have zipped his month and maybe even gurgled when he was inevitably asked about the fees by callers to his monthly radio phone-in programme on the eve of the meeting with key stakeholders in the education system. Essentially, the prime minister restated Government policy: children must not be denied admission to schools or sent home because they can't pay auxiliary fees. Should this happen, Mr Golding said, "well, bangarang". That overly energetic Jamaican phrase upset Mr Stewart's organisation sufficiently to frighten them away from a meeting at which Mr Golding is present.

Can free education work?

The good thing, though, is that the Jamaica Teachers' Association, the professional body and trade union of teachers, of which the members of Mr Stewart's association are a part, attended the meeting with Minister Holness. So, too, did the National Parent-Teacher Association. The principals, in that regard, will have had representation at the meeting if not a specific and direct input. And that is unfortunate, especially when they sacrificed dialogue on an important issue on the altar of petty peeve.

As we have argued before, the real issue here is beyond any hurt, real or imagined, being felt by Mr Stewart's members. Neither is it simply about the auxiliary fees charged by schools or any 'bangarang' Mr Golding might visit upon errant teachers. The fundamental issue is whether Jamaica can afford the 'free' education promised by the Government and what is to be done to decently finance education in Jamaica. The Government gave up perhaps $1 billion when it ended cost-sharing in secondary schools. But having covered the shortfall from the budget, it is still faced with higher costs. Principals have plugged the gap with their fees. Principals, in the circumstances, should want to be party to ways around this conundrum.