ROSE HALL, St James — Prime Minister Andrew Holness is urging school administrators not to turn away students whose parents find it difficult to pay tuition fees at the start of the new academic year in September as a result of economic hardships brought on by the novel coronavirus pandemic, coupled with external shocks.

Holness, leader of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), was addressing a meeting of the party’s general executive at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Rose Hall, St James, on Sunday.

Holness, meanwhile, announced that the Government is planning an extensive back-to-school programme, seemingly in anticipation of what he foresees as the “biggest test that will face parents in September”.

He reminded the party members that the no-tuition policy “is that no child should be turned away from school because of any obligatory fees”.

“For two years we have had education loss and what are you going to say to us now? That the children returning to school won’t have an education if they can’t pay for it? I am saying to us as a country, ‘Now is not the time for that!’ The posture should be ‘Mek we get all the pickney dem back into school,’ ” Holness charged.

“Come and argue with the Government, don’t argue with the child. And my heart soft to education already so from you come and argue with me bout it you know we gonna find some way to deal with it. I am saying ‘Don’t put any obstacles, come September, for the children to go back to school.’

“Minister of Education Fayval Williams started the dialogue — because in education you know the real issue is the dialogue. You have to give everybody their respect and talk to them, make sure that they are on the same page, but right now the national effort, the national interest, must be to get all of our children back into school.”

Nevertheless, he urged parents who can afford the school fees not to be “mean-spirited”.

“There may be some parents who I consider mean-spirited, that because the Government says no child should be turned away, they say ‘Cho, me don’t have to pay. Gwaan a school.’ I’m saying to those parents, don’t be mean- spirited. Still make your contribution to the school,” the prime minister encouraged.

He also instructed JLP representatives to be on the lookout for students who are not back in school when the new academic year commences.

“And so MPs, councillors, councillor/caretakers, caretakers, agents who are here, you need to be on the lookout and have strong surveillance in your community for children who may not be going back to school, and encourage them to go back to school.”

The JLP leader also mandated Education Minister Fayval Williams “to say to the schools ‘Be very reasonable with the booklist’ “, adding that one lesson the pandemic taught is the use of technology.

“So we are planning a very extensive back-to-school programme because we know that is going to be a pressure point come September. So, we will be assisting parents as much as possible with book vouchers and other forms of assistance,” he said.