THE GOVERNMENT says it remains committed to continue paying tuition fees for the island's students, especially in light of the global economic downturn.

Since 2007, Government has been paying full tuition fees for secondary school students. Last year, it pumped almost $1 billion more into secondary schools to cover their losses from the abolition of tuition fees.

"Now more than ever we would have to continue funding tuition fees," Minister of Education Andrew Holness told The Sunday Gleaner on Thursday. "The Government has a critical target and that is young people. In times of crisis you can't give up on the young people, you will never recover them when you recover from crisis."

He added: "And in order to recover from crisis, you need to have your young people ready and waiting to take advantage of the opportunities that come out of a crisis. And so we will be continuing our funding, but what we don't want to do is exclude anyone, and that's the challenge."

Holness said some people believe that parents should pay for education, but they do not look at inclusion.

"If you can't pay then sometimes you are excluded and we all know that some schools are not as sensitive as they ought to be when dealing with the dignity and pride of our young people," he said.

Meanwhile, Senator Basil Waite, opposition spokesman on education, told The Sunday Gleaner recently that he agreed that the Government should continue paying students' tuition fees.

"Absolutely, you have to continue, you can't stop," said Waite.

"To sustain and grow your economy, you need education. So it would be a retrograde step if (the Government stops funding the tuition fees)," Waite said.

The Ministry of Education recently ordered principals, bursars and chairmen of schools to put a hold on any increase in auxiliary fees for the 2009-2010 academic year in light of the global economic downturn.

According to the education ministry, auxiliary contributions were not to exceed 2008-2009 levels.

Other expenses

However, Nadine Molloy, president of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools, said the Government would have to find a way to offset some of the costs that schools would incur, because the fees were instrumental in assisting with paying bills and other expenses.

There have been reports that some schools have been forced to abandon music and sports programmes because the subventions that they get from the Government are not enough.

Molloy said while she could not speak to specifics, there are schools that are really struggling because they cannot fund some of their programmes.

"If you have less (money), then there is less for your programmes. It is ingenuity that keeps some programmes running," said Molloy.

"People are experiencing problems and we are cutting and carving and see how best we can allocate the resources that we have," she added.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com