OUR school, Meadowbrook High School, has been featured in the media because of actions taken against sixth-form students due to their non-payment of fees without any explanation or communication from their parents. There are other underlying concerns which must be expressed.

There has been an increasing demand for sixth-form spaces. Contributing to this is the fact that an equivalent qualification in a tertiary institution is costing some $200,000 per year, compared to $42,000 per year at Meadowbrook High.

Last year, sixth-form students, based on arrangements, began with part payments and ‘promises to pay’ by the next week, by month-end, etc. Once accepted as a student, it is then difficult to ask them to leave, and so many have left not fulfilling their obligation.

Consequently, for this year, definite criteria were developed and put in place. The students were informed in June, in writing, and it was incorporated as part of the application form, that:

* The annual auxiliary fee is $42,000 and must be paid in full before the start of classes.

* Your space will be forfeited if fees are unpaid one week after classes have begun.

The payment of fees is required for registration, after which you become a student of the school. In like manner, Grade 13 aspirants must apply for readmission.

This year we had 238 applications at Grade 12 for the 100 spaces we had on offer. The committee was discriminating in their selection and some 118 youngsters were offered spaces subject to the above conditions. Over 100 applicants could not be offered a space and some are still waiting.

On the morning in question, some 20 of the applicants offered places could not be registered because the fee-paying requirement was not met. These applicants were advised to leave and return with their parents within the week when they are able to be registered. Failing this, their spaces would be offered to the applicants in waiting.

Let us not be shortsighted; this action must be seen against the background of a bigger picture. There is a cancer which has been allowed to take over so many areas of our country under the disguise of poverty. The experience of many in Jamaica is that if you want electricity you just throw up your wire and watch your 60-inch flat screen TV. If you want water, you just dig and make your connection and enjoy your jacuzzi. The suppliers will write off the debts and/or regularise these miscreants, but have never seen it fit to even give a discount to those who have been faithful payers over the years.

Where is the regard for the decent and law-abiding citizens who struggle to pay, and must pay more, because the suppliers must have their guaranteed returns? Where is the regard for those who show responsibility in parenting planning, and have only children they can afford to house, feed, clothe, and school.

We are now in an age where increasingly in our schools the students feel they can saunter in at whatever time they like and the only proven effective deterrent is outlawed. We are now in an age where increasingly the students feel they can wear their uniforms any way the desire and, again, the proven deterrent is outlawed. We are in an age when the time spent on maintaining discipline is seriously undermining the teaching and learning process. We are in an age where students are now beginning to think that they are supported by the powers that be and do not even have to work hard to pass their exams while in school.

Here it is now, that some parents think that they must not pay school fees, not even say a word to the administrators, still send their children to school and expect it to be business as usual.

Be it known that this phenomenon does not only apply to the sixth formers, but across all grades. Should this be tolerated? No! We would be derelict in our duty if we allowed this mentality to develop in our children and school. A telltale sign of the manifestation of this cancer is even in tertiary graduates who refuse to repay the Students’ Loan Bureau.

This mentality is so embedded in our psyche, under the disguise of poverty, that the question of why the fees are not paid was not even asked by the media. Was it because of need? Was it because of greed? Was it the ‘freeness cancer’?

On the morning in question, the applicants all had new uniforms — which was good. Some had their high-end cellphones, brand-name bags, watches and shoes. Was it an issue of priority? We must look down the road and ask ourselves what will happen when parents start to ask why should I be paying when others are not, and stop paying themselves. What will happen then to schools when they are not able to pay their bills and provide the resources needed for teaching and learning?

We have the responsibility to protect the legacy of our founders. The action taken at Meadowbrook High must be seen in this context. The cancer must be treated before it consumes the entire school system to the detriment of its ability to produce an educated population. Those among us who are law-abiding, who pay our bills, and obey the rules are voters too. The greater good is achieved, in all cases, by treating the cancer cells, and if unresponsive by removing them, so that the body can survive.

To do otherwise is to our peril.

Michael Peart is principal of Meadowbrook High School. meadowprin@yahoo.com