The Ministry of Education issued a communiqué on Friday, urging administrators and parents of children in high school to ensure that all eligible students are registered to sit exit examinations this year.

Registration is open up to January 14, 2016 for the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ), National Vocational Qualification of Jamaica (NVQJ) and City & Guilds examinations. Registration for both the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) are officially closed, but the ministry said it would facilitate students who may have missed the deadline.

“Parents are asked to contact the ministry’s regional offices for assistance,” the ministry said.

The Ministry of Education stipulates that grade-eleven students should sit a minimum of five exit examinations including English language, mathematics, a marketable skill and two other subjects.

Speaking Friday during an awards function for students who excelled in the 2015 sitting of CSEC and CAPE, education minister Ronald Thwaites disclosed that the ministry was currently providing subsidies totalling $380 million for examination fees for several subjects.

The subsidy covers four CSEC subjects – mathematics, English language, information technology and a ccience subject; four CAPE units; full payment for students doing (NVQJ) and (CVQ) examinations; and subject fees for students sitting City and Guilds mathematics and English language. Students pay the registration fees.

Minister Thwaites said where some parents are still not able to afford the fees for other subjects they should inform the ministry so that assistance can be provided as best as possible.

He noted that a policy objective of the Ministry of Education was to ensure that over time 100 per cent of students in the grade-eleven cohort sit exit examinations.