DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

darece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

Stake­hold­ers have wel­comed the call by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion (MoE) for prin­ci­pals of all gov­ern­ment, gov­ern­ment-as­sist­ed and de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools to de­sist from re­quest­ing con­tri­bu­tions from new stu­dents dur­ing the reg­is­tra­tion process. How­ev­er, they are call­ing for more fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance from the state, and one or­gan­i­sa­tion is even threat­en­ing to sue.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) Pres­i­dent Mar­tin Lum Kin said ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions have been bur­dened by a lack of fund­ing. He said this ap­plies to Ear­ly Child­hood Care and Ed­u­ca­tion (EC­CE) cen­tres, pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools.

“If the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion would ad­e­quate­ly fund all schools through­out the sec­tor there would be no need for this is­sue to be rear­ing its head. There are many in­stances where schools are left to fund ac­tiv­i­ties as well as in­ci­den­tals of a fi­nan­cial na­ture,” he said.

The Catholic Board of Ed­u­ca­tion (CEBM) agrees that no child should be ex­clud­ed be­cause of their in­abil­i­ty to give a con­tri­bu­tion. CEBM pres­i­dent Sharon Man­groo ac­knowl­edged that some prin­ci­pals have been over-en­thu­si­as­tic in re­quest­ing aid, which has not been trans­lat­ed well.

“Some­times the way the re­quest is made, peo­ple don’t feel that it’s vol­un­tary at all. They give peo­ple the per­cep­tion that they have to pay these vol­un­tary do­na­tions,” she said.

How­ev­er, she said the CEBM has made at­tempts to of­fer sup­port where pos­si­ble, in­clud­ing pro­vid­ing sec­ond-hand books and uni­forms in many in­stances.

The Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS) re­mained adamant that its schools do not re­quest reg­is­tra­tion fees. SDMS Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Vi­jay Ma­haraj told Guardian Me­da the MoE has lapsed in its re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to spend mon­ey on de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools, adding that he will be fil­ing le­gal ac­tion.

“They have re­neged. That is why I’m go­ing af­ter the Con­cor­dat with all nine claus­es of the Con­cor­dat be­cause with­in that it says that they are sup­posed to sup­ply us with suf­fi­cient fund­ing to keep us run­ning,” he said.

Chair­man of the Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School Board of Ed­u­ca­tion Vikram Ram­lal said the needs of their schools are not be­ing met. He said par­ents will need to bear the cost of some ex­pens­es, but he con­ced­ed to hav­ing those con­ver­sa­tions at a dif­fer­ent time.

“We have no prob­lem with delink­ing it. We think it is a sug­ges­tion that would take away this pres­sure that is placed on par­ents where they feel at reg­is­tra­tion that the fees are manda­to­ry,” he said.

Stu­dents are still re­quired to pay for their home­work books, pho­to­copies, badges, ties and oth­er in­cre­men­tals at some point in time.

Mean­while, the Na­tion­al Par­ent Teacher’s As­so­ci­a­tion (NPTA) wel­comed the MoE’s po­si­tion on school fees. NPTA Pres­i­dent Kevin David said some par­ents are be­com­ing frus­trat­ed by the fig­ures re­quest­ed. He added that in schools with­out a par­ent teach­ers as­so­ci­a­tion, some are be­ing tak­en ad­van­tage of.

“We have a lot of our par­ents com­plain­ing about the ex­trav­a­gant cost of these fees. What we have recog­nised as well that many of these schools do not have of­fi­cial PTA’s so, in a way, that clear­ly shows us that the schools them­selves may be tak­ing ad­van­tage of the fact that you have a new in­take of par­ents and new stu­dents,” he said.

In a press re­lease on Fri­day, the MoE ad­vised that with im­me­di­ate ef­fect, school con­tri­bu­tions are no longer per­mit­ted to be re­quest­ed from new stu­dents who are be­ing reg­is­tered as the prac­tice has caused na­tion­al con­cern and anx­i­ety among par­ents.

“Though the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion is ful­ly cog­nisant of the fact that par­ent con­tri­bu­tions to school ini­tia­tives and projects are help­ful, re­quest­ing do­na­tions or con­tri­bu­tions dur­ing the reg­is­tra­tion pe­ri­od has had, over time, the ef­fect of mak­ing what should be vol­un­tary, seem manda­to­ry. This per­cep­tion ef­fec­tive­ly nul­li­fies the pol­i­cy of the Gov­ern­ment of T&T, which is to of­fer free ed­u­ca­tion to all stu­dents reg­is­tered at pub­lic EC­CE, Pri­ma­ry and Sec­ondary Schools,” the state­ment said.