GOVERNMENT has admitted that the recent hike in transportation and food costs — the result of the new petrol taxes — could negatively affect school attendance and promised to try to alleviate the problem for those in need.

Minister of Education Andrew Holness two Fridays ago said that while school enrolment is high, some children are not attending school regularly because their parents cannot afford to send them. But he said he is looking at ways to further assist students at risk of dropping out of school.

“Attendance in schools is a challenge. We notice that enrolment is still high but attendance is an issue. No doubt there will be some minor impact (on attendance from the new tax package) but impact nonetheless,” Holness told Career & Education.

The minister added that Government is seeking to expand the school feeding programme to counter any fall-off in school attendance.

“As basic as it sounds, one of the reasons why some parents send their children to school is to benefit from the lunch that they would not be able to deliver by keeping them at home,” he noted.

Holness said while bus fares to students are already subsidised (students pay 50 per cent of the adult fare), the Cabinet was discussing other provisions to assist students with transportation. “That will be publicised very soon,” he said.

Holness’ comments come against the background of reports of the death of a 12-year-old boy in Manchester late last year, the cause of which was officially listed as malnutrition.

The Ministry of Health has since launched a probe into the child’s death, Health Minister Rudyard Spencer told Career & Education two Tuesdays ago.

“It was reported that it was malnutrition; that is being investigated,” Spencer said of the reported death.

Asked whether there had been recent reports of increased malnutrition among children in Jamaica, the health minister said “I have had none”.

More than two weeks ago Opposition spokesman on education Senator Basil Waite called for the national school feeding programme to be targeted to the most vulnerable students. He said statistics showed that despite the existence of the programme some of the poorest children were remaining hungry while the programme was being accessed by some persons in higher-income groups.

Holness admitted that the school feeding programme needed to be better targeted, but urged school principals to assist in this process.

“We are worried about the targeting, but it is very difficult to administer the programme,” he said. “We trust that our principals are doing everything they can to identify the most needy students, but we (the Ministry of Education) need to give them more training and guidance in that process.”

However, special advisor to the minister and principal of Jamaica College Ruel Reid dismissed the view that the school feeding programme was not reaching the most vulnerable and that school attendance would fall off because of this.

“I don’t see any evidence of that, certainly not at Jamaica College. And where people are having problems, help is available. We (Jamaicans) have been through rough patches since the 1970s; in the 1990s one year we had inflation of over 80 per cent. We have to look at what we have done to survive these difficult years,” he said.

These difficult years call for Jamaicans to make the children’s attendance at school a priority, Reid added.

“I think people will have to make some minor changes but not to the point where they will not be able to send their children to school. People have to adjust their budgets to deal with the most critical things first,” he noted.

The principal noted that Government programmes like the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) and the school feeding programme were accessed in primary schools and upgraded high schools which were not attended by the wealthy.

“Generally the primary school system is accessed by the poor while the wealthy send their children to preparatory school. Most traditional high schools do not have a Government-funded feeding programme,” he said.

Reid also called on the most vulnerable persons to apply for assistance under he government programmes, as they would not be turned down.

“As with social security in the United States, if there is a benefit available, you have to apply for it. As far as I am concerned, persons who are not benefitting are those who have not applied,” he said.

The principal also urged individuals to do more to assist the vulnerable in their communities.

“Just like the outpouring of support for the earthquake victims in Haiti, we need to provide more help for our less unfortunate neighbours,” he said.