Education Ministry on Target to Refund Tuition Fees – Finance Ministry Allocates $750 Million

Minister of Education, Andrew Holness, said that the Ministry is on target to start refunding secondary school tuition fees by mid-November.
Mr. Holness, in a statement in the House of Representatives on (Nov. 6), informed that the Ministry of Finance and Public Service has released approximately $750 million to the Ministry, which will be used to refund parents, and also reimburse school accounts.
He said that “based on figures collected from secondary schools, we expect refunds to be in the region of $267 million. The remaining $483 million will go towards the cash flow requirements for secondary schools.”
He noted that principals and school administrators are already aware of the process for refunding parents and is ready to start as soon as they have received the funds. “I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to parents to follow the specific guidelines set by their school to facilitate a smooth refund process,” Mr. Holness said.
School principals are responsible for making refunds to parents/guardians, who had paid tuition fees prior to the confirmation of the Government’s free tuition policy.
Schools have been instructed through bulletins to observe the following: refunds must be made by cheque only; no deductions are to be withheld from the amount refundable to parents; refunds will be payable to original payees that are not institutions; proper accounting records must be maintained; and all disbursements of refunds to parents must be completed by the end of the last day of school of the present school term, that is, by December 19.
Refunds not collected by December 19, 2007 will remain with the schools to be used towards development activities.
Effective September 2007, the Government of Jamaica removed the obligatory mandated school fee charge, commonly referred to as tuition fee. However, schools will continue to seek the financial support of parents through various fund raising efforts and user fee charges, which are not stipulated or mandated by the Ministry of Education.