The Jamaican saying “one one coco full basket” is being put into practice by the Ferncourt High School Britonville Campus in St Ann. The school has embarked on a programme encouraging parents to save small amounts weekly or monthly towards the examination fees of their children.

The parents of students who are currently in grade ten will be opening partner plans with the First Regional Cooperative Credit Union in order to save money to pay exam fees in October and November 2016.

Renee Barrows, guidance counsellor at the Britonville Campus, said she was asked by principal of the institution, Rev Lenworth Sterling, to come up with ways to help parents get the monies ready for students who will be sitting external exams in the next school year.

“When the students get to grade eleven at the time when the fees are to be paid, the parents give different excuses,” Barrows said.

Barrows said First Regional was asked to draft contracts for parents to start partner plans which will not allow them to get these savings until the examination fees are to be paid.

Parents recently attended a seminar at the Britonville Campus where representatives from the Rural Agricultural Development Agency (RADA) and First Regional spoke with them about the partnership plan.

For those parents who are currently unemployed, Shawn Bravo, extension officer at RADA, told them about crops or animals which can yield fast returns to help them to get their children’s examination fees ready.

Kerry-Ann Gordon, marketing manager of First Regional, told parents of saving options they could undertake in order to get the desired amount when it is time to pay fees. She announced to parents that they can start as low as $500 weekly.

“It is the aim of the school that children leave with mathematics, English and a skill subject. Therefore, the programme was launched to ensure this happens, [as] we are just trying to ensure that our students are given a chance,” school principal, Rev Sterling, said.

Students at the school’s Britonville Campus will sit a combination of City and Guilds and CSEC subjects. For those students who are unable to sit CSEC mathematics or English, they will sit the subjects in the City and Guilds. The City and Guilds examinations have three levels and so students can sit various levels based on their competence. These exams cost over $4000.

The programme will become an annual one, Barrows said.