Educators agree school 'donations' must not be part of registration

Education stakeholders agree with the Minister of Education that requests for school donations should not be done during the registration of new students, saying the idea of a "registration fee" should have been made clear by schools.

Sharon Mangroo, CEO of the Catholic Education Board of Management said, “Her (Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly) recommendation that they make the donation separate from paying for the children’s supplies is a good one. In the past, what was recommended was that the donations be taken up by the parent-teacher group, and that it should be specified that it was separate and voluntary with no conditions.”

Mangroo explained that some schools asked parents for two sets of money during registration – one for materials such as uniforms, badges and other supplies received by the children, and voluntary donations which went to paying security, building maintenance and other resources for the school.

“People have this belief that denominational schools are better resourced than government schools and sometimes they are, but not from the government. We are better resourced because the community and the parents provide the resources.

“In fact, the grants for the denominational schools are lower that what is given to the government schools.”

She made the comment after the Ministry of Education sent out a release on Friday announcing that principals of government and government-assisted early childhood care and education centres (ECCE), primary and secondary schools were told to stop requesting school contributions from parents during the registration of new students.

It said, from time to time, schools may request voluntary contributions for school initiatives but no student or parent should be discriminated against based on their ability to respond to such requests. It added that perception of the practice of requesting school contributions from parents during registration nullified Government’s policy of free education to all students.

“Due to the anxiety experienced by parents, and the annual concern to the national population that this practice has caused, principals have been advised that these two processes are to be delinked with immediate effect. As such, no school contribution is to be requested of parents at the registration of new student cohorts in government or government-assisted ECCE, primary and secondary schools.”

Mangroo said some schools may put pressure on parents to donate during registration even though it was voluntary but people should stop using the term “registration fees” because there are none.

She said parents may feel if they did not make the donation their child may not get into the school but she assured that was not the case. She said parents and children should not be made to feel excluded or embarrassed if they could not contribute, especially as parents may be facing financial difficulties coming out of the pandemic.

Vijay Maharaj, acting secretary-general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) said his schools did not have any registration fees and asked for nothing during registration other than money for required items. He said parents would have had to purchase those items outside of the schools if the schools did not buy them in bulk and sell it at a much cheaper price. Also, if parents could not pay for the necessary items in full, SDMS schools allowed for them to pay in instalments throughout the school term.

“If that is regarded as a registration fee, well then we have an issue. My schools do not have any other fees. But we do have fundraisers and so on where we ask parents to assist in moving forward and paying certain bills.”

He said the government did not pay for security or improvements at schools. He said at one school the SDMS paid $18,000 per month for security, at another, a lab was built at the cost of over $1 million, and the SDMS hosted an SEA award function. All were paid for by parents and the community.

National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA) president Kevin David said he appreciated the minister setting the facts straight so parents would know how to deal with the matter in the future. He said schools should have informed parents the donations were voluntary from the start as some parents were given the impression it was mandatory. This impression, he said, created a problem for parents, some of whom had to go to great lengths to get the money for the school.

He acknowledged the funds were used for infrastructure maintenance and repair, and other necessary issues but agreed requests for funds should not be done during registration.

“We found these schools with exorbitant ‘fees’ did not have properly installed PTAs, PTAs that were affiliated with the NPTA. What may be happening is there is a feeling among the school administration that they would not get the necessary support from the parents through the child’s life at the school, so they take from in front.”

He said schools with establish PTAs usually got continuous support from the parent body.