The Editor, Sir:

'Free Education' is the current topic for debate and is indeed a worthy topic. Different groups argue different opinions on the subject; that it is pure fantasy as we cannot afford it, a strategy to win votes, or simply just trickery on the part of those who propose it. But is the idea of free education any more of a fantasy than the idea of free health care - even if the beneficiaries are children? We can no more afford free education than we can free health care, but it was made possible anyway, wasn't it?

Some argue that this 'free education' will be paid out of our tax dollars, but that's nothing new, everything else is paid out of our tax dollars, both the necessary and the unnecessary. This venture, however, would be one of the necessary things. Despite how much the PNP scoff at the idea - which was the same way that the JLP scoffed at the idea of free health care - it is still viable, and their opposition to it is only because they didn't promise it first - pure politics!

They ask where the money will come from to fund this free education that we will benefit from. I ask where the money will come from to keep funding free health care for children when our health facilities are in such a bad condition. Do we even need to speak of the situation at the Kingston Public and Victoria Jubilee hospitals?

Whenever an idea is to be made to yield fruit, sacrifices must be made. In a case such as this, injections will have to be made and in agreement with what the Education Minister suggested in regard to the improvement of the PATH programme, an expansion of the budget is a feasible option. It can happen and it would be a good thing for Jamaica and we all want what is good for Jamaica.

I am, etc.,

LARISA McBEAN

Morant Bay

St. Thomas

mmlarisa@yahoo.com

Via Go-Jamaica