Dear Editor,

The Ministry of Education is responsible for the Jamaica Values and Attitudes (JAMVAT) Programme for Tertiary Students, which offers assistance to university students in exchange for 200 hours of community service. The JAMVAT office was previously located at The University of the West Indies, Mona campus; however, it was relocated to the National Youth Service and is now located at the Ministry of Education. I am dissatisfied with the Ministry of Education’s handling of the tertiary disbursement funds.

From my observation, this issue arose in 2016 when the new Administration took office. I have received numerous complaints from students about their tuition fees not being paid by the relevant agency.

For each academic year funds are usually distributed to the respective institutions. Since 2016 it has come to my attention that these funds are not being distributed in a timely manner, thus leading to students being de-registered by the university, or preventing them from seeing their grades.

It has taken the Ministry of education over 12 months to disburse funds which were previously allocated for in the budget in 2017 and also in 2018. To date, some students have not received their scholarship awards.

Guided by my own experiences, I know that these funds are usually disbursed within weeks after the completion of voluntary work. When the organisation was being chaired by Maxine Henry-Wilson the fees seemed to have been on time so students would not have to suffer.

At this point, some students are frustrated and faced with the possibility of dropping out of school because the current fees are outstanding. The Government has given them false hope that they too can achieve their dreams of a higher education. How can an organisation which is geared towards promoting strong values and good attitudes have so little value for the circumstances of students?

Someone needs to be held accountable. The minister of education needs to step in and ensure that these students are not forgotten and that their hard work was not in vain.

Tertiary StudentMonaSt Andrew