The Ministry of Education today issued guidelines for school registration fees and stated that no student shall be denied registration due to their parent’s inability to pay.
“…children have a right to schooling and must be registered”, the ministry declared.
In a statement the ministry said it has noted with concern that some school administrators have been requesting significant sums of money for the registration of new students to nursery, primary and secondary schools under the pretext that such sums were previously agreed upon by the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA).
The Ministry said it has given great consideration to the needs of schools and wished to provide the following guidelines for non-budgetary costs.
- No student shall be denied Registration to any school due to their inability to pay; children have a right to schooling and must be registered.
- The Parent-Teachers Association for each school has been authorised to conduct fundraising to support school administration to offset non-budgetary costs. (Badges, PTA dues, Report Booklets, Miscellaneous).
- If the activities planned and executed by the Parent-Teachers Association do not generate the income to offset non-budgetary costs, then the following guidelines should be followed:
- a) For All Nursery Schools – not more than $2,500.00/year
- b) For All Primary Schools – not more than $3,000.00/year
- c) For Secondary Schools – not more than $5,000.00/year
- d) For National Secondary Schools – not more than $8,000.00/year
(Queen’s College, the Bishops’ High, St. Stanislaus College, St. Rose’s and St. Joseph)
The ministry said that these sums were carefully considered for all non-budgetary costs and as such no additional request must be made from parents.
There must be no compulsion for students to purchase physical exercise clothes, aprons for Home Economics, lab coats, tie-pin etc from the school, the ministry admonished, adding that parents of nursery children should not be issued with any list of supplies to be purchased.
