The Government has been charged to strengthen its relationship with the island's private schools and partner with them in nation-building.

The call was made by Dr Herbert Thompson, president of the Adventist-operated Northern Caribbean University (NCU), on Sunday.

"In this Caribbean island, private education is not as respected as it is in other nations of the Caribbean," said Thompson. "Private schools are equally involved in the lifting up of this nation through education, exposure and enlightenment."

Greatest partners

Thompson said the Government should intervene to prevent a series of closures among cash-strapped private institutions. Privately funded schools, he said, were the Government's "greatest partners".

Thompson was speaking at the President's Banquet for Education hosted by the East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and the Adventists Lay-persons Services and Industries, which was held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

"There are some things we can copy from our Caribbean neighbours as it relates to private education. In Barbados, private educational institutions receive one teacher's salary for every 40 students, up to 240 students, and beyond 240 students, one for every 80 students.

"Also, a government regional office is assigned to private institutions and there is a government subvention for various studies. In Dominica and St Vincent the government pays the teachers' salaries in all secondary schools, whether government or private."

Caribbean perspective

He added: "I am not saying that we have money in Government and elsewhere, all I am saying is that we must stop making it seem as though the people involved in private education are the enemies of the State."

In an article published in The Sunday Gleaner dated March 8, 2009, it was reported that of the estimated 200 independent schools in Jamaica, 50 are facing serious financial problems. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica currently operates 26 of these schools across the island. Though subsidised by the church, the larger portion of the cost to operate these schools comes from tuition fees.