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Nadisha Hunter, Gleaner Writer

The Government is to save $46 million through a new system to pay for students sitting external examinations.

Education Minister Andrew Holness told journalists during yesterday's regular post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House that the Government would no longer subsidise students sitting mathematics, English language, information technology and a science subject in Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence on a broad scale.

Instead, the minister said students would be required to have a grade point that would ensure a pass at the sitting of the exam.

Holness said the students' histories from grades 10 and 11 would be used to come up with the average that would qualify them for subsidy.

The Government had been paying the fees for these subjects since 2002.

The Government also paid the fee for students sitting the CAPE, which is equivalent to the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level.

Plans under way

The Government, however, had warned that a revision of the payment policy for students sitting the four CSEC subjects was in the pipeline.

"This has been a matter of debate for some time, we have given adequate notice of the change. I believe that students in the education system are prepared for it and I believe that it will save the Government and the public coffers quite a bit," he declared.

The minister said this approach by the Government was necessary to ease the burden on the education budget.

The ministry has been operating from a total budget of $131 million.

"We have had to move to this new funding policy because, when we examined the effectiveness of the subsidy, we realised that every year we lose approximately $5 million from students for whom we have paid, but they do not turn up to sit the exams," he charged.

Holness added: "Then, when we look at the pass rate, that is where we consider as an acceptable pass level three and above, we find that close to 40 per cent of our students are getting below the pass grade. So instead of just giving a flat subsidy we should use the subsidy as an incentive for performance."

Alluding to the Career Advance-ment Programme, which the ministry has recently developed and implemented, the minister said there were many demands on the education budget with an increase in the number of persons that the ministry would have to subsidise.

The minister assured students that the cut-off score for the subsidy, which is to be decided on soon, would not be prohibitively high. He said the ministry would keep it at a level where they would be able to capture most students who would, by virtue of their past performance, suggest that their performance on the exam would give them a grade three or higher.

He said this would be effective for the next school year.

nadisha.hunter@gleanerjm.com