THE Ministry of Education yesterday named some of Jamaica’s top traditional high schools among a list of 46 institutions that have defied instructions to submit annual audited financial statements in keeping with the requirements of the Code of Regulations, which govern the administration of public schools.

Jamaica College, Ardenne, Decarteret College, Queens, Manning’s, St Hugh’s, St Hilda’s and Bishop Gibson High were listed among the delinquent institutions that were in arrears since 2000.

The list – which also includes several non-traditional high schools, one technical high school and eight primary and junior high schools – was presented to the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.

Last week, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Audrey Sewell, told the PAC that there were 41 schools that had “never ever” submitted financial statements to the ministry despite efforts to have them do so.

However, when the list was produced for yesterday’s meeting, the ministry appeared to have changed its original position, disclosing that the schools had been in arrears since 2000/2001.

Of the 46 schools, 22 were reported on a separate list as having a 16.3 per cent delinquency rate. Ministry officials would not say if the remaining 24, including the aforementioned, were among those that had never submitted statements.

Quick to pick up the omission, PAC member Dr Morais Guy asked Sewell what was the status of the 41 schools that had never ever submitted audited statements.

“They were all written to. And they are responding.” Sewell said.

Guy then asked for a copy of the list, and when it was presented to PAC chairman Dr Omar Davies, he was not amused. He noted that some of the delinquent schools were hundreds of years old and among those that were held in high esteem.

Sewell later reiterated that some schools had never submitted any while others were tardy in submitting reports.

The ministry, she later told the

PAC, had set up a desk to monitor the compliance rate of schools.