PRIME Minister-designate Bruce Golding yesterday urged school principals not to turn away students who had not paid their fees, as the new administration would be honouring its election promise to pay tuition fees for all secondary schools students.

Golding’s call, which came a few short days before the September 10 official start of the new school year and only two days after the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) edged the People’s National Party (PNP) at the polls, was made amidst much concern from public school officials over non-payment of fees.

“Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bruce Golding, has urged the principals of all government high schools to allow the admission of students for whom tuition fees for the new academic year have not been paid,” said a statement issued yesterday by the JLP.

“Mr Golding [has] also assured the principals that the Ministry of Education will remit to the schools, funds to cover the fees that ordinarily would have been required in respect of those students,” the statement added.

According to the JLP statement, Golding gave the assurance that “immediately upon assuming office as prime minister” he would give “appropriate instructions” to the finance and education ministries for fees that have already been paid by some students to be refunded.

However, the statement said that refunds would only be honoured upon the provision of bank vouchers from the schools to verify payments.

Free tuition was one of the main platforms of Golding’s Jamaica Labour Party’s almost year-long election campaign.

Meanwhile, president of the Jamaica Teacher’s Association (JTA) Ena Barclay, told the Observer that, for the most part, anxiety among public school principals had somewhat dissipated in the face of Golding’s assurances.

“I think the statement that the incoming prime minister issued has given a sort of reassurance to the principals and as the JTA, and we are heartened by the relief,” she said.

Barclay stressed, however, that it was imperative that Golding and his team addressed the matter with urgency, in order to ward off “great challenges” in the public school system.

Urgency, she said, meant two weeks after assuming office.

However, Barclay’s colleague, Nadine Malloy, who heads the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools, said that schools were already feeling negative effects of the non-payment of fees.

“At this point we would have been getting auxiliary fees but they are not coming,” Malloy told the Observer.

“Although we got a tranche from the ministry in late July/early August, we are still feeling the pinch because some parents believe that when [Mr Golding] says no tuition, that it means no payment of auxiliary fees and because we do put those fees to very good use, not having it now will mean we may have to delay some things. So we’re caught between a rock and a hard place,” she said.

She admitted though that schools ought to have some start-up money for the new year, but echoed Barclay’s comments that the new government needed to act swiftly.

Malloy added that if the JLP’s promise meant that 100 per cent of the tuition and auxiliary fees would be covered, then all would be well.

Yesterday, some parents of students in public high schools gave mixed reactions to the no school fee pledge.

Catchris Brown, who last year paid approximately $13,000 in tuition and fees for her daughter Tamoya who attends Immaculate Conception High, said she was taking Golding to his word and will not pay a dime.

“Mi not paying none. It nuh free!” she exclaimed. “He said that when he wins, students would not have to pay and those who paid would be refunded so I’m holding him to his word,” Brown told the Observer yesterday.

Meagan McDonald, the parent of a Kingston College student, was less confident about the practicality of the programme and raised concerns about provisions for auxiliary staff.

“I think it will work but I think it will cause a lot of pressure on the school administration. How will they pay their auxiliary workers for example, because not everything is funded by the budget. That’s my concern,” she said.