By Francine Black, Staff ReporterAN EMERGENCY MEETING of all principals of upgraded or reclassified high schools to discuss the financial crisis facing those institutions has been called for next Monday, January 26, at the Spaldings High School in Clarendon.
The decision was taken at yesterday's executive meeting of the Association of Principals and Vice-Principals at Tarrant High School in Kingston.
The upcoming meeting will take an in-depth look at the economic situation of the 80 reclassified high schools across the island.
"We don't want to run into a situation where we make statements but have no information to back it up," Stanley Skeene, president of the association, told The Gleaner following yesterday's meeting.
QUESTIONNAIRE
At the upcoming emergency meeting, principals will be required to complete a questionnaire that is now being drafted. The data will then be compiled and presented to Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson for her to plead their case as it relates to the financial crisis.
The Ministry of Education has been late in making payments to the schools under Government's Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) and the Cost-Sharing initiative. Those payments are normally made in January but have been pushed back to March as the Government faces its own economic woes.
Principals in the meantime have complained that they are barely able to keep the schools open because of the lack of funds.
The financial situation facing the schools is largely due to the massive shortfall in operational budgets which are totally funded by school fees. These budgets cover all the day-to-day operational expenses of the schools such as utility bills, the provision of furniture and teaching aids.
The problem, the principals say, has been worsened by the small percentage of students at their schools who have paid their fees in full.
