Students being barred for auxiliary fees

Nadisha Hunter, Staff Reporter

WITH SCHOOLS set to reopen in another week, the Ministry of Education has been receiving complaints about students who are being prevented from registering because of their inability to pay auxiliary fees.

Acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Grace McLean, told The Gleaner that students on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) are the ones mostly affected.

"We have been getting a couple of complaints, and we have been addressing them with individual schools. Our position is that the auxiliary fees are necessary and our parents should make every effort to pay these fees.

"But of course, we know that we have the disadvantaged groups among us, especially those who are on PATH, which we know will have difficulty, and so we have asked our schools to try to separate what is called goods and services from contribution that would go towards the general operations of the school," she explained.

Provide the essentials

McLean added that parents of students on PATH who are unable to pay should make an effort to provide essential items such as badges, ties and other things that are required, while the ministry tries to assist by working directly with the schools.

"We have asked our region officers to collect that information from our schools in terms of how many students on PATH who are not able to pay the auxiliary fees, and we will be trying to see how we can address that internally," she further said.

- nadisha.hunter@gleanerjm.com