Education Minister Andrew Holness.
Cabinet is revamping a state-funded programme in which the government foots the bill for students sitting Mathematics, English, Information Technology and a Science subject in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams.
The programme was established by the former P.J. Patterson administration.
As a result of the changes the government will no longer pay the subsidy for the subjects.
This will save the cash-strapped administration more than $46 million will be saved.
Education Minister Andrew Holness, who made the disclosure at Jamaica House on Wednesday afternoon, said students will now be required to demonstrate optimum academic performance before the government steps in to assist.
“So we will no longer fund the compulsory subjects, Math, English, a Science subject and Information Technology on a broad scale,”
“Students would have a grade point that would qualify them for funding and we intend to use their historic grades from Grades 10 and 11 to come up with that average that would pre-qualify them for subsidy. This has been a matter of debate for sometime, we have given adequate notice, at least three years notice,” Mr. Holness said.
Mr. Holness says the government has seen millions of dollars going down the drain as a result of students who shy away from taking the subjects although they are paid for by the state.
“When we examined the effectiveness of the subsidy we realize that every year we lose approximately $5 million from students we have already paid for but do not turn up to sit the exams and then when we look at the pass rates, what we consider an acceptable pass, Level Three and above we find that close to 40% of our students are getting below the pass grade so instead of just giving a flat subsidy we should incentives the subsidy,” Mr. Holness said.
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