Letter of the Day | Where is the education tax being spent?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

On listening to the furore about the probable misuse of National Housing Trust funds, I am moved to query the status of the education tax, another underhand tax to which workers of Jamaica have contributed for many years.

Can it be a case that the education tax that is collected is a part of the hundreds of millions of dollars that the education ministry is unable to account for, or is it being used to help to pay those individuals on indefinite leave?

I am possibly one of many who served the education system for over 40 years during a time when individual salaries probably never accumulated to the $11 million now being paid annually to two people on indefinite leave.

As retirees, we are now forced to subsist on pensions which cannot pay medical and utility bills and buy the food which we need to survive. Surely pensions can be revisited and boosted from the education tax if it still exists.

Can we have your attention please, Madam Education Minister!

RONALD FAGAN