Many Schools Reporting Increases In Revenue

Education Minister, Hon. Andrew Holness has said that while some schools are experiencing low revenues, about 60 per cent have reported increases, by virtue of Government subsidy, as well as parent contributions.

Education Minister, Hon. Andrew Holness

Mr. Holness pointed out that the problems some schools are facing now, result from exorbitant auxiliary fees and contributions. “Parents will give as much as they can, whereas if you enforce a price, then clearly those who can’t pay, simply don’t pay. They have raised their prices so high that the elasticity of demand for education has kicked in, so that their revenues would have fallen dramatically, so it’s a pricing problem for those schools,” he added. He said it is expected that their revenues will improve over time.
The Minister was speaking at the launch of the Education System Transformation Programme (ESTP), on June 23, at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.
He emphasised that the government was firm on its position, that no student should be barred from access to education because of inability to pay any fee, whether obligatory or contributory.
“Nor are we going to revise our position on the removal of tuition fees, because that is important in the overall thrust towards improving access to education. We could not claim to want to improve access and at the same time, maintain fees that could potentially exclude persons from the benefit,” Mr. Holness said.
The ESTP seeks to give greater emphasis to the reform of the systems, business processes, and quality of the sector. This is expected to improve outcomes, through focus on supporting a modernised and transformed system of governance, management, and improved accountability.