Alarming school action

The Editor, Sir:

I write in response to the article in The Sunday Gleaner of July 18 titled 'School probe'. I find it quite alarming that with the economic situation as it is, and with many working parents barely able to find the basic miscellaneous fees which the various schools demand in addition to daily lunch and transport fees, an institution could be calling upon parents to reach even deeper into their pockets to rectify a problem that should not have existed in the first place.

Should parents really be called on to fund a programme to complete the school syllabus/curriculum which, with proper planning, whether from school or ministry, should make such gouging unnecessary?

Shouldn't it be illegal to have already been assured that you would not be required to pay for a service only to have a cost suddenly foisted on to you?

Short-changed

What is the real role of the Ministry of Education if this injustice can be packaged without, as they say, their knowledge/consent?Isn't it unfeeling to suggest that because some parents spend to excess on minors like graduation outfits, hairstyles and expensive school shoes, all students in the batch should somehow be able to cough up the 'small amount' of money or else face the consequences of being short-changed in their education?

Isn't that labelling? Isn't that cruel and unfair? What of parents who genuinely cannot afford it?

Every teacher worth his salt knows that this is a situation which proper lesson planning/grade level planning or efficient school administration could have settled otherwise than having to resort to what can only be called highway robbery.

And to what end - to prove a point that the ministry needs to get its act together, penalise irresponsible parents or compensate some teacher for 'overwork' on the job for which he is duly paid?

I am, etc.,

JOY ALLEN

Kingston 20