OPPOSITION Leader Andrew Holness says if the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is returned to office after the next general election it will resume tuition-free education in all secondary schools, whatever the cost.

“Regardless of who is going to jump up and say what it cost and how we are going to pay for it, I don’t make glib promises. I make commitments. Education is not to be compromised and we will return to our original policy of tuition-free education,” said Holness, who was minister of education under the previous Government.

He was speaking Saturday night at a function hosted by the North West St Andrew JLP constituency executive committee at Curphey Place, St Andrew. The committee paid tribute to 350 constituency party workers from North Western St Andrew, which has been represented by veteran JLP MP Derrick Smith for the past 26 years.

Holness stated that in addition to removing the tuition fees, as it did when it came to power in 2007, the JLP would also further increase the allocation per capita for each child in secondary schools.

“We will make that commitment to keep on increasing that per capita allocation to each student, to make sure that they are able to access the best quality education there is,” Holness added.

He noted that in its general election manifesto in 2007, the JLP had made a similar promise to remove tuition fees and had fulfilled it at a cost of $1 billion.

Reacting to comments that a JLP Government would not be able to fund the programme this time around, Holness pointed to waste in the public sector which could be turned into savings to finance it.

He said that he was able to save $1/2 billion of the cost to his ministry then, by originating an inventory management system which ensured how many books were already in the system and how many more were needed, to reduce the waste of having books printed and piled up at schools without being used by students.

He said that, as in 2007, the first port of call would be to use existing budgetary funds more efficiently.

“We are going to cut down on the telephone calls the ministers make and we are going to cut down on the travels the prime minister makes, and we are going to cut down on the corruption that is going on in the public bodies in this country,” Holness said.

“When we won it was in September 2007. I remember being asked the question: how are you going to fulfil the promise of free tuition? But we knew what we were doing. We not only fulfilled the promise, but we refunded those parents who had already paid their tuition fees,” he recalled.

He pointed out, however, that since the change of government in December 2011, the current Government has reversed the policy, creating immense financial problems for parents who are unable to afford it.

Holness said that he could not understand the current Government’s claims that education is the key to social mobility, “and in the same breath the minister (of education) is saying that the contributory fees paid by parents are now compulsory”.

“In effect, what he has done is to return mandatory fees to the educational system,” the JLP leader said. “If education is the key, why is the PNP making it so expensive for us?”

He said he has heard the cries of parents who are concerned that their children cannot access their CXC examinations results and have nothing to show for their achievements, because the schools are refusing to hand over the results to them due to the inability pay outstanding fees.

“It is having an impact on enrolment and attendance at the schools and it is having a devastating impact on the dignity of our children,” he said.

He said that free tuition for secondary school students was always the policy of the JLP dating back to its founding in 1943.

“Free scholarship, as it was called then, or free entry into high school, that was the policy of the JLP then, and it has not changed since 1943,” Holness told a large crowd of supporters attending the function.

“We are not making it as a political promise. That has always been a fundamental principle of the Jamaica Labour Party: We are the party that believes in free access to education and we will maintain that,” he stated.

Other speakers at the function included JLP councilors in the constituency, Duane Smith (Chancery Hall) and Vernon McLeod (Havendale).