The School Squeeze
Author : teriannAfter the dust settled, parents of students who passed the GSAT exams for prestigious high schools faced a new problem.
Many high schools have mandatory summer school for their new students. To make matters worse, they also added hefty registration costs. Parents were ‘up in arms’ when they were told they had to pay these additional costs.
So are schools just being greedy by trying to squeeze every last cent from parents? I think that view may be a bit harsh as there is always more than one side to any issue.
The official position from the Ministry of Education as reported by The Gleaner is that schools should not increase their auxiliary and registration fees. They also do not support the charging of these fees as mandatory nor should children who do not pay be barred from attending the institution. However, despite this, the practice continues in most schools. This can be seen from the frequent advertisements placed in newspapers advising parents of the costs of registration which range from $2500 – $ 5000.
I think that there is a possibility that the schools have increased these fees so as to supplement their budget as perhaps what the government sends is not enough to meet their needs. If that is true perhaps there just needs to be dialogue so that everyone’s position is clearly discussed and a plan developed that will benefit all parties. What do you think?
Click on the link below to read the full article mentioned above:
http://mobile.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100709/lead/lead93.php
Teri Ann Renee Paisley (gleaner on line writer)
Tags: auxiliary, costs, fees, mandatory, registration, school, summer
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5 Responses to “The School Squeeze”
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I think worldwide things have become hard.
Some ppl are truly suffering, while some whois forever bawling manages to go to bashment and have the latest to wear by any means necessary.
Its time for deadbeat sperm donors to step up
and help these kids when they excel, Govt is
there to give a hand to citizens when its bad
but a certain sector think everything should be
given for free, the country cant run under pressures of the constant beggy beggy ppl who wont work.even if they get a job
Now these schools have to realize the minimum wages is $3000-43500 WKLY, When poor ppl have to pay $2500 of that to the schools the child cant have 3 proper meals a day to enable the
learning process,the Min. of Education have to find another way, because when the parent is stress, the child get stressed and from that
comes drop outs, gangs,older man to help, a belly, just negative happenance; putting a child out of school who passed but have no registration funds is plain EVIL by these schools
I thin we need greater transparency on the part of the schools. MAybe they need to declare an annual balance sheet declaring their spending jus as schools here in the US.
Is the money being collected from fairs, after school programs etc. actually being spent in the student’s best interest?
I wanted to say that it¡¯s nice to know that someone else also mentioned this as I had trouble finding the same info elsewhere. This was the first place that told me the answer. Thanks.
My brother and I have been just debating your very topic, he is invariably looking to prove me wrong. Your view on this is perfect and just how I feel. I recently mailed my brother this site to show him your own perspective. Immediately after overlooking your web site I saved and will be returning to read your posts!
Rosalia I am glad I was able to add to the debate. Keep visiting!