Published On:Tuesday, August 31, 2010

ALTHOUGH Education Minister Desmond Bannister has announced on many occasions - the latest being on July 29 -- that no fees are charged for entry into a public school, another complaint came to The Tribune yesterday. The circumstances surrounding that complaint leads us to believe that politics has now entered the arena.

Political activist Rodney Moncur called our office to "tip" us off that he had two students who had been denied registration because their parents could not pay the registration fee. He was going to take them to the school to be registered. He suggested that The Tribune might want to send a photographer to record the problems they were going to face.

The photographer was assigned. When the photographer arrived he saw Mr Moncur with a mother, two children and their aunt. The aunt took the older child to be registered at the senior high school. She encountered no registration problems. The mother dealt with the younger child at the junior school. She told staff that her child had previously been refused registration. She then had a private meeting with a school representative after which her child was registered without a problem. So what was the problem and where was the story?

It turns out that earlier in the summer the mother had gone to the school to register her 11 year old. She was told about the "registration" fee -- a one time fee covering six years that included insurance. The $130 fee would give a child round-the-clock insurance coverage, whether in or out of school, for as long as they were students. It was a good deal that no parent could afford to miss. But there were parents who could not afford such an offer. The teachers were sending those parents to Social Services for assistance. However, fee or no fee -- insurance or no insurance -- no child would be denied entrance to any government school.

What this mother understood of that conversation at that time is not known. However, she is supposed to have told the school's representative that she did not have all of the money at that time, but would return. She did not register her child. Nor did she return.

Apparently, she was expecting a certain sum of money which did not come through. Instead of going back to the school to explain her financial position, she went to Mr Moncur. What Mr Moncur understood of her story is not known, but there are those who believe he saw a political opportunity and was "meddling."

Anyway, Mr Moncur -- mother, aunt, and two children -- went to the school yesterday, prepared for rejection and an argument. They got neither.

On leaving the school Mr Moncur told a Tribune reporter that the mother had vowed that if anyone at the school were "mean" to her child as a result of the rumpus caused yesterday morning "she'd come and close the school down."

Sometimes we believe the main problem with today's children are their parents.

Anyway, when our photographer returned he told "the desk" that the story was not what The Tribune had been led to believe. He did not think there was an issue and, although he went around taking photographs, he did not know why he was there. He certainly was not impressed by the mother's behaviour.

On an earlier occasion when Mr Moncur had a previous issue with students not being registered and had gone to the government school to complain, he was told there would not be a problem. We understand that he even met with Minister Bannister when the fees policy was fully explained to him. However, it is understood that a week after that conversation no attempt had yet been made by either Mr Moncur or the parents to register those children. We just assume that they were eventually registered.

Fully armed with the information about school fees from no less a person than Minister Bannister himself, we would have expected Mr Moncur to help parents who had doubts or were confused over the matter.

Certainly knowing the procedure we would not have expected him to go to the school to create a "news" scene over something that was no longer newsworthy. Teachers have enough problems trying to accommodate young people into overcrowded schools. They certainly should not have to be burdened with non-issues with political overtones.

We believe there would be fewer confrontational and angry young people in this country if parents and politicians did not keep the confrontational kettle on a constant boil.

If Bahamians want a more harmonious country there has to be more leadership by example.