THE Holy Childhood Prep School in St Andrew, noted for consistently producing outstanding GSAT results, is now in dire financial straits and on the brink of closure resulting from a plummeting student population.

The institution, which boasted an enrolment of over 600 students as recently as 2011, is now down to a mere 84.

And that number could be further reduced as parents — upset with a recent money-earning initiative by the school — have threatened to pull their children from the 85-year-old preparatory school.

Parents are riled by plans to rent a section of the premises on Half-Way-Tree Road to Quality Academics (QA), which caters mainly to young adults.

Sister Mary, who is a part of the school administration, presented the plan to parents for the first time early last week during a meeting at the school.

She said that the school was in a “crisis” but insisted that closing the institution was not an option. Sister Mary explained that the school administration had asked the education ministry to take over the institution and run it as a primary school, but the ministry was more interested in places for students at the secondary level.

She said that Quality Academics needed the space and a five-year memorandum of understanding was arranged between both insitutions. The school is to rent 30 empty classrooms to QA for it to start operating on the premises come September. Sister Mary said there will be no interaction with QA’s 300 students and those from Holy Childhood, as a fence will be in place.

She told last week’s meeting that “extraordinary situations require extraordinary solutions” but the parents reacted strongly to the proposed move, arguing that “unbecoming behaviour” of QA students may influence their children from across the fence.

But Sister Mary sought to allay their fears and told the parents that the QA proposal was the only way foward as the $70,000 per term for a child was insufficient to operate the school.

“I’m losing so much faith hearing what you are saying,” a female parent commented. “I’m not agreeing with what is about to go down.”

Another parent wanted to know why the school never consulted with them before making the decision, “if we were a family”.

Other parents asked about the social profile of Quality Academics students, with one adding, “I know they have some bad students.”

However Sister Mary said that she wasn’t prepared to sit in judgement of the Quality Academics students. “We have to look beyond our prejudices,” she said.

A number of parents said that they started seeing a decline in the student population of Holy Childhood Prep in 2011, with many parents pulling their children. They faulted the administration for the decline and said no credible effort was made to stem the problem.

“I feel so betrayed,” said another, adding that she really doesn’t want to pull her child from the school as is being threatened by other parents.