The entrance to the Hydel Group of Schools, located at Ferry, St Catherine. The school has been given a lifeline following Government's controversial purchase of the lands on which it is situated. The lands will now be leased to Government Senator Hyacinth Bennett, who owns the school. Prime Minister Bruce Golding is accused of having undue influence over the purchase. - Norman Grindley/Acting Photography Editor

FOUNDER OF the Hydel Group of Schools and government senator, Hyacinth Bennett, has fired back at her detractors in the rapidly developing Ferry land saga.

According to Bennett, the mounting allegations are politically motivated.

"I would suggest that persons who are going to continue such narrow political mischief that they enrol in the evening college I have for adults," Bennett said. "Maybe when they enrol here their darkened, backward, politically motivated sensi-bilities are likely to be softened or altered."

Financially sound

Bennett said Hydel was a financially sound institution, which was poised to soar even higher as an educational institution.

Speaking with The Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre yesterday, Bennett said there was no truth to the allegation that the government purchase of the land was a Hydel bailout.

The Urban Development Corporation (UDC) paid $168.7 million for the six-acre property and is making provisions to lease the lands to Hydel.

Saving students' education

Last week in Parliament, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said had the Government not secured this land in this particular instance, it is possible that Hydel would have had to leave.

Golding claims that a closure of the schools would leave up to 1,200 students, mainly from poor families, without a learning institution.

However, Hydel is a high-priced private school. It costs $35,000 per term for a student to attend the preparatory school and $38,700 per term to attend the high school at Hydel. The school also offers several tuition scholarships to students each year.