KINGSTON, Jamaica — With several private schools facing closure due to financial difficulties, Education Minister, Ruel Reid, has declared that the Government will not create a system where public money will be used to “bail out” private companies.

Addressing journalists yesterday, Reid said: “If you set up a private school and it is not viable by virtue of demand and supply, you can’t now come to Government and ask the Government to bail you out,” Reid said, adding that a move like that would set precedence for every other private entity.

“We cannot create this kind of dichotomy…every private company that is operating that falls into financial difficulty will come and ask the Government to bail it out,” argued Reid.

 Some of the cited challenges facing private schools is the fact that there is now enough space in the public education system at both primary and secondary levels.

 “We have an excess capacity in our primary schools, and in regards to secondary, we now have, for the first time, adequate secondary places because we have been building,” he explained.

Reid suggested that institution owners re-engineer and transition into other activities.