PATH parents asked to help with lunch

Parents whose children are on Government's poor-relief vehicle, the Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH), are being asked to provide between $45 and $60 for the provision of meals two days per week.

Education Minister Ronald Thwaites made the policy announcement while contributing to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives yesterday. He said the ministry would be providing PATH beneficiaries with a free lunch for three days per week at a cost of $2.4 billion. He said, however, that the funding was not sufficient to allow the Government to provide free lunches all five days of the week and has asked parents to share the burden.

Grace McClean, chief education officer in the ministry, told The Gleaner that the amount being requested of the parents was determined after a pilot programme was undertaken and the cost of providing the meals was determined. She said the cost of meals differ in rural areas from urban areas, as well as based on the input for the meals.

Meantime, Thwaites said the ministry was providing breakfast and lunch for 138,000 students or 70 per cent of the early- childhood cohort this year, at a cost of $1.05 billion.

"Government will no longer purchase, store or distribute large quantities of imported commodities such as tinned corned beef, tinned mackerel, flour and cornmeal. The school- feeding menu will use, as far as possible, locally produced protein: meat, peas and eggs," Thwaites said.

Extend rental programme

In the meantime, the minister announced that the cycle for the replacement of textbooks in the school rental programme is to be extended from three to five years.

Some $900 million is being spent on the purchase of textbooks this year, even though Thwaites admitted that the budget has been cut by $88 million. The minister said this will not be to the detriment of students.

Thwaites has also instructed that no book lists are to be issued by schools unless approved by the ministry. He said this follows a review of book lists issued by schools, which have resulted in parents being required to make unnecessary spending on books.

"Parents should not be spending more than an average $5,000 on supplementary texts at the primary level and no more than $12,000 at grades seven to nine at the secondary level," Thwaites said.