Hand it over
Published:Saturday | August 21, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Nadisha Hunter, Gleaner Writer
The National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica has condemned the approach of school administrators who are withholding Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate and Caribbean Advance Proficiency Exami-nations results from students who owe outstanding auxiliary fees.
President of the association, Marcia McCausland-Wilson, told The Gleaner yesterday that while she was aware that the auxiliary fees are important in the daily running of the schools, depriving students of their results is unfair.
"I don't agree with the schools not issuing the results when the parents owe. They need to find other ways to get parents to pay," she charged.
The Ministry of Education yesterday strongly advised school administrators to discontinue the practice. The ministry issued the warning after it got reports from students and parents that some schools were refusing to hand over the results because they were in arrears.
Against policy
"This position taken by the schools' administrators is not in keeping with the policy of the Ministry of Education. Principals have no authority to deny students access to their external examination results," the ministry said.
"Students who have sat their examinations by virtue of the fees they paid for those examinations are not required to pay any further fees to receive their results," the ministry said.
The ministry further added that principals who used such practices in their schools were in contravention of the policies of the Ministry of Education.
The ministry said there was no legal basis upon which principals could withhold results of students who were in arrears for non-obligatory auxiliary fees.
Opposition Spokesman on Education Basil Waite was first to raise a red flag on the issue. On Thursday, Waite called on public education institutions to cease and desist from what he termed an illegal and unjust practice.
"Regardless of socio-economic standing, parents and students should be able to go to school, with their confidence and dignity fully intact, to retrieve their exam results," Waite said.
It is unclear how widespread is the practice of withholding results.