These issue of which schools may need to employ a shift system will be determined by school readiness surveys - which are now being circulated.
But, while the educational wheels are now turning towards and opening date…for many parents who have lost their jobs or suffered pay cuts - it's been very difficult to find the money to pay fees for the school year that is finishing, and don't even ask about finding registration fees for next year.
Today, the Minister of Education says he sympathies, but there's just no wiggle room for the schools:
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"The matter of fees that are outstanding to schools, if in deed people owed fees to the schools. There are some who are saying well my child didn't go to school so I am not going to pay that fee for the last term. I made the appeal to parents and to students or to whoever else pays fees to make those payments, because those schools rely on that income and in fact there is an annual fee and many schools break it down to monthly or quarterly or semester fees in order to accommodate the students. So when those payments are not made, that kind of practice we don't encourage and I encourage those who could make those payments to make those payments whether their children were in school or not. As it relates to registration fees we ask the same thing for them to be lenient in terms of collecting those fees. I ask as well though the parents to be mindful that schools need money to operate and if you cant pay that's one thing, but there is some people who don't want to pay and who believe that somebody should be paying. Education is a very expensive commodity and so I have to understand the school's position when they are saying we need monies to operate. When schools don't get their monies they are not able to provide some of the very basic things that they provide. Schools quite often expect a bulk payment at the school year, because it is like pulling teeth to get the payments later on. Parents make everything else a priority rather than paying for their children's education."
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