OPPOSITION leader, Edward Seaga, on Tuesday painted a picture of an elitist educational system where students from the poorest families, or 70 per cent of those attending school receive “little or no benefit at all”.

“What is the purpose of a ministry of education which provides little more than a day care centre for 70 per cent of the student population until time to go home,?” he asked during a spirited debate on the issue. “The present system of education provides sound education for the top 20 per cent of school population. Ten per cent more receive some passable benefits, while the remaining 70 per cent receive little or no benefit at all.”

But the opposition leader’s assertions were immediately refuted by education minister, Maxine Henry-Wilson who pointed to government initiatives that had resulted in increased access at all levels of the educational system. These initiatives, she said, included:

* remedial programmes for dropouts,

* moves to create partnerships between parents, the school, and the community to improve attendance and participation in education including basic schools, which Seaga had pinpointed as being in need of an overhaul and greater governmental supervision.

Seaga’s broadside came in Parliament, Tuesday, as he moved a resolution aimed at implementing a full programme of free education to replace the present system of cost-sharing and the PATHE programme in schools.

Expanding on a theme first mooted in the run-up to last October’s election campaign, the opposition leader cited a litany of weaknesses including poor passes in CXC examinations. Last year, he said, there were 25 per cent and 16.7 per cent passes in English and Mathematics respectively; while “70 per cent of all students who sat the exams in 2003 received no passes at all”.

Adding that the bulk of the education budget went for wages and salaries, leaving only five per cent, or $1 billion, for development, Seaga called for an increase in the overall education budget. He cited figures that showed that Jamaica’s per capita expenditure on students was US$170, compared to US$701 in Barbados and US$649 in the Bahamas.

He suggested that the education budget, which amounted to 10 per cent of the country’s overall budget, should be increased to 15 per cent, a level consistent with the country’s Caribbean Community (Caricom) partners. By his calculation, the cost of this increase would be $3 billion recurrent and $2 billion capital.

Along with increased budgetary allocations, Seaga made a number of suggestions aimed at improving the education system. They included:

* a government takeover of basic school education;

*the building of 70 new basic schools;

* promoting full enrollment — he said the present figures were fictitious because of the frequent switching of schools;

* extending the period of schooling from 16 to 18 years;

* introduction of a comprehensive textbook lending programme for secondary schools and recycling of primary texts;

* reviewing current placement programme for GSAT students to ensure that schools in poorer areas are not stripped of good quality students at the secondary level;

* provision of books, lunch and transportation;

* providing compulsory homework period after classes under supervision because conditions at some homes were detrimental to study;

* and a number of measures geared at improving teacher performance including upgrading more teachers to degree level and performance pay incentives, as well as the replacing of tuition fees with grants.

But Henry-Wilson said it was Seaga’s government that had re-introduced a wide-scale system of fees in the 1980’s following the free education system of the 1970’s. The 1980’s, the education minister argued, was marked by “teachers spending more of their time in fund-raising, …and teachers found a number of ways to subsidise their class activities”.

Among these means, she said, were the introduction of a number of fees such as laboratory and library fees. She said cost-sharing did not exclude any child because no child was to be turned away because of inability to pay.

“There are no statistics to show any decline in terms of attendance because of cost-sharing, said Henry-Wilson.

On the issue of results, the minister said attempts were being made to increase attendance levels which, studies had shown to be directly correlated to performance. She added that the government was emphasising primary education in order to ward off many of the problems that occurred at the secondary level, when it was more difficult to correct, rather than basic schools, on which Seaga wished to place the main emphasis.

“The answer is not for the government to take over early childhood education, we are creating partnerships,” Henry-Wilson said. “…and the new Early Childhood Bill has provisions for monitoring and all the necessary ingredients; that is how you build a genuine education system.”

She offered a counter resolution to Seaga’s proposal, which factored in the need for stronger partnerships in the education process while pursuing an open door policy on education. The minister ended with a commitment to phase out cost-sharing in three years and replace it with “an enhanced budgetary allocation and universal secondary education”.

But the debate on the resolution fell victim to a technical glitch when the microphones on the Opposition side malfunctioned, ruling out further participation.

House leader, Peter Phillips, recommended that both sides meet in the interim before the next sitting of Parliament in order to work out a resolution with which they could both agree.