Minister of Education, Youth and Culture, Maxine Henry-Wilson, points out something of interest to students of St. Francis Primary on Old Hope Road in Kingston earlier this year.
Petrina Francis, Education Reporter
ANOTHER SCHOOL year begins officially tomorrow with thousands of students turning out to private and public institutions across the island. With this will come many of the same old problems that have been plaguing the system for decades, still unsolved, and new challenges as well.
In some places students, parents and teachers will this year, as in years gone by, be faced with insufficient furniture, late arrival of secondary school textbooks and inadequate funds. But added to that list is the increasing concern about security in schools.
Ruel Reid, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) is concerned that some schools have yet to receive cheques for cost sharing from the Ministry of Education, although administrators had been assured that they would have got them by the end of August. He noted that while schools should have been receiving revenue from school fees, this has not been enough, as a number of parents are still not making payments on time. This has hindered the process of getting things done. Mr. Reid says despite JTA urgings for the ministry to get the money to the schools in the summer, they have never been able to do so.
EFFECTING REPAIRS
Additionally, Mr. Reid said that there are some schools that have not received money to effect repairs. One such school is Marlie Hill Primary in south Manchester. It was among hundreds of schools severely damaged when Hurricane Ivan ripped through the island in September last year. Some were repaired while others were left in conditions which are unsuitable for learning.
Tracey Hamilton, public relations officer at the Office of National Reconstruction, (ONR) told The Sunday Gleaner last week that repairs slated for more than 100 of the 200 schools across the island will not be completed for the reopening of school tomorrow. According to the ONR, which is spearheading the repairs, electrical and sanitary repairs remain to be done in the schools.
But a Ministry of Education officer said that non-completion of the repairs should not prevent schools from reopening, as work would be ongoing while school was in session.
For the teachers, this is not good enough. "We are upset and disappointed that the work has not been completed before the start of school," said the JTA president. He said teachers would, however, try and bear with the situation and hope that the repairs could be completed quickly.
Considering that the Government had more than ten months to complete the necessary repairs, this is scandalous. So the net result is that students will be going out to schools tomorrow to be met with all manner of disrepair. Schools are supposed to be places of learning and with all the other inadequacies they have to cope with, the last thing they need is to have their schoolwork disrupted by workmen. Schools were out for two months and the ministry should have ensured that these repairs were done.
According to Dorrett Campbell, the director of communication and policy coordination at the Education Ministry, some of the repairs have not yet been completed. She, however, noted that prototype buildings and special tents would be constructeded until all the school spaces were ready by the end of the school term.
PROMISED FURNITURE
For his part, Hopeton Henry, first vice-president of the Association of Principals and vice-principals said schools had been promised furniture but in most cases, the delivery had not been made. He noted that some schools had repaired furniture where possible, but there was still a shortage in many schools.
Addressing the 41st annual conference of the Jamaica Teachers' Association last month, Maxine Henry-Wilson, Minister of Education, Youth and Culture, said her ministry would be spending a little more than half a billion dollars on furniture. This money will come from the $5 billion that has been transferred from the National Housing Trust (NHT), to assist with the transformation of the education system. The NHT Act was amended to permit a one-off-grant to education.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry says it will not meet its September 5 deadline to create 2,400 additional spaces in 13 secondary schools.
Mr. Reid is also concerned about the late delivery of textbooks to secondary schools. Ms. Campbell said, however, that the contracts for the books were awarded late and some schools would not be getting their books on time.
However, she noted that the tardiness of some school administrators who sent their order to the ministry late, also contributed to the delay. She said that up to last Tuesday, there were at least two schools which were just submitting their orders.
ISSUE OF SECURITY
Another major concern of the JTA this year is the issue of security. Last academic year, a crime wave rocked many institutions, forcing administrators to implement new security measures.
Among the more recent incidents, Manning Marsh, former principal of Boscobel Primary, was found in a pool of blood after thugs invaded the school and slashed his throat last month.
Earlier in July, the general office at the Camperdown High School in Kingston was set ablaze after two armed men invaded the school and tied up and robbed the bursar.
In May, arsonists set one of the blocks at Kingston College on fire, damaging a book room containing the school's photocopying machine and the door of the vice-principal's office.
Similarly, in June, frustrated students at the Edith Dalton-James High School in St. Andrew demonstrated after a teacher was held up by gunmen in a classroom and robbed of her jewellery. The men also took her car keys and escaped in her motor vehicle. The car was later found, as it had a tracking device.
These incidents are too many and more has to be done to curb the rampant crime and violence that are affecting the nation and have been spilling over in the schools. The school is a microcosm of the society and until the societal issues are addressed, security problems will continue to plague schools.
But when the matter of security was raised at the JTA's annual conference last month, Mrs. Henry-Wilson said the ministry could not afford to implement security measures in all schools, as there were greater priorities at this time.
Some schools have moved to assume responsibility but pass on the costs to parents. Meadowbrook High School in St. Andrew is forking out $100,000 each month to pay Marksman security company to keep the school safe.
Also because of security concerns, St. George's College in Kingston has installed an alarm system through King Alarm company in the library and the Hannas buildings, which store most of the computer equipment.
ADDITIONAL FEES
So parents are now faced with a range of additional fees despite Government's intervention. While the Government has lifted the burden off parents by allowing them to pay only 50 per cent of their children's school fees, school administrators have added additional burden by increasing the supplementary fees.
For a school like Meadowbrook High, the supplementary fees were $4,000 last year but were increased to $6,000 for the new school year. The principal told The Gleaner recently that this has been the case because the school has to pay for security, identification cards, physical education gear, lab fees and coaching and umpiring fees. Students in first form are required to pay $7,000 for auxiliary fees in addition to $4,000 for school fees.
At Kingston College, students are required to pay $8,000 in auxiliary fees, up from $4,000 last year and $4,000 for school fees. Auxiliary fees were $4,000 last year.
PROPERLY FINANCED
The JTA's president says schools should be properly financed and in the absence of enough funds from the Government, money has to be sourced from elsewhere. While it is true that schools have to find means of financing themselves, the Government cannot be trying to reduce the burden while schools are in turn pressuring parents.
For some parents, back to school is a nightmare. Not knowing where the next meal is coming from or where to find lunch money and taxi fare is again upon them. One parent related that she has been suffering from headaches for the past two weeks because she knows that it is time to send back her two children to school and she is struggling financially. She is employed in the public sector, which is under a wage freeze. She noted that the prices of goods were increasing but her salary had not.
Delinquency on the part of some parents is contributing to the administrative nightmares in the education system. A number of students who sat the Grade Six Achievement Test in March and did not submit birth certificates will not be going out to school tomorrow, as they are just receiving their results from the ministry. This is scandalous and parents should be held more accountable. It is difficult to understand how a 12-year-old child does not have a birth certificate.
It is just frustrating that for another year, the stakeholders in education have failed to get it right, and the ones who will suffer are the most innocent among us - those, from whom we expect so much, yet give so little: the children.
