PARENTS who had paid tuition fees at the start of the school year for their children who attend secondary schools should begin receiving refunds in November from an $800-million allocation government is expected to make to the institutions, in keeping with its election promise.

According to Education Minister Andrew Holness, schools will be required to make the refund from this allotment “at an early date” in November.

“We hope to start the refund as soon as we have sent the transfer to the school, which we hope to do sometime in November,” Holness told journalists attending a press conference at his ministry in Kingston yesterday.

According to Holness, the education ministry will now transfer the entire amount of the endorsed fees as formally parents were asked to pay 50 per cent. The endorsed fees for 216,000 students in secondary school, he said amounted to $1.8 billion.

Already a payment was made of $460 million in August, which represented 29 per cent of the total amount the government would normally transfer.

Holness said when the $800 million is transferred to schools, this will bring to 75 per cent the amount to be paid over to the schools.

The remaining 25 per cent of the tuition, Holness said, will be paid to the schools in February, completing government’s commitment to taking on the entire amount of tuition fees.

The minister said the refund should go directly to the recognised legal guardian of the student and that no deductions for fees owed previously should be made. The refund, he added, should be done by cheque, and should not be made payable to any institution.

The processing of the refunds, added the minister, would not continue indefinitely and should end by December 19, the last day of this school term.

Meanwhile, the minister said parents were free to give back the money to the school, but they must first sign for and collect their cheques. “.In order not to violate our commitment of the refund we are asking that there must be a record of the transaction,” he said.