HOLNESS

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has accused the People's National Party (PNP) of being "intellectually dishonest" in announcing it will pay the tuition fees for children at the secondary level whose parents cannot afford to pay.

Andrew Holness, Opposition Spokesman on Education, said the Government's announcement on Monday - that no child who could not afford the tuition fee should be "questioned or subjected to any form of embarrassment" by school administration" - is nothing new.

"It has been the policy of the Government that no child is to be denied entry into school for the last 10 years," Mr. Holness told The Gleaner yesterday.

However, notwithstanding this policy, Mr. Holness said, some students are turned away from school every year.

Abolish tuition fees

Opposition Leader Bruce Golding has promised that his party would abolish tuition fees if it were to form the next Government, and refund fees to parents who would have already paid the fees.

"The PNP finds themselves in a quandary, they have tried to assail an idea that is unassailable," Mr. Holness told The Gleaner yesterday. "They agreed with the JLP's position that education, up to the secondary level, ought to be tuition-free, but they don't want to implement it because they are afraid that the JLP will get the political credit for championing the idea.

"Now, that is what I mean when I say that we won't play politics with education because that's what the PNP is doing, and they are being intellectually dishonest," Mr. Holness said.

Pay tuition fees

The Government on Monday said that, by November, it would pay tuition fees for children whose parents have not paid.

But Hopeton Henry, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, said this announcement will fuel "opportunistic behaviour".

"My anticipation is that, given the present scenario, there are parents who are not going to pay, even if they can afford it," Mr. Henry told The Gleaner.