Two nights ago we showed you Minister of Education, Patrick Faber “going off” on Frank Garbutt, President of SJC. Garbutt was unavailable for comment at the time and only called us today to respond to those charges. Specifically, Faber spoke about SJC’s new fees and also SJC’s opposition to the National Education Services Commission. To put it in context, we’ll have both sides tonight.
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
“We can suspend and maybe even terminate the granted aid status.”
Frank Garbutt, SJC President
“It is unfortunate that a Minister of Government and even more so the Minister of Education would have gone before the nation and make comments like that. I think if anything else it shows almost like a breakdown in the dialogue that happened between the Ministry and managing authorities.”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“Listen, I am an SJC boy. I went to SJC High School and Sixth Form. I spent six years of my life at that institution and I can say that there was a certain compassion in SJC.”
Frank Garbutt,
“To say that we lost our compassion is astonishing to me.”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“The compassion that I know SJC had did not turn away students who could not pay or who the government was trying to help.”
Frank Garbutt,
“Some of them brought with them a financial aid letter from the Ministry. The Ministry letter helped to cover the fees maybe from the previous school year but then becomes the issue now, payment for the new school year. These as I said were just a handful and all it required again was a proper communication. It is not a case that we were not working to resolve that and we did come up with a resolution in the end, this was several months ago we met with the Minister. So it seemed very strange to me again that that would be resurrected which I deemed to be a minor issue and at no time did this college say to any of those students you could not attend.”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“The kind of school I know SJC to be would not outrightly defy the Education Act, would not outrightly defy a rule that is set when the Ministry says there should be no increase.”
Jules Vasquez,
In terms of the actual fee increase, the fact as the Minister holds it to be that he has the final say so on what fees get increased. You all did seek his approval, that is the bottom line. You went about it the wrong way, that is what he says.
Frank Garbutt,
“Yes and I will not sit here and claim there is not validity to say maybe we didn’t go through how the rules said it but I raise the other
issue too, the rules also require that the Ministry must first take to the District Education Council and then to the National Council for Education. My question is was that across the counI will not sit here and claim there is not validity to say maybe we didn’t go through how the rules said it but I raise the other issue too, the rules also require that the Ministry must first take to the District Education Council and then to the National Council for Education. My question is was that across the country?”
Hon. Patrick Faber
“In fact we will write to SJC to say to them that they need to send out a proper fee schedule.”
Frank Garbutt,
“We have instructed all our finance officers that they are to keep the fees as to what they were last year. We are asking parents who can afford it to then either contribute what would have been the difference in our increase or anything in that. It is voluntary and we are asking that as I said for a simple reason: these are the monies we need to ensure that when a boy comes to our school that we are able to provide the level of excellence that we are accustomed to. I am absolutely unapologetic that SJC, we expect to have nothing but the best for our students.
We expect that our students have computer labs, that the computers are functioning and running, they will sit in classrooms, they will have fans, we will ensure that they have fields where they can play, they have a gymnasium that is safe, that is up to par, what they need and all these things still nonetheless require a lot more input. It is not that as if though we have first class things here but we certainly don’t want kids to come here, especially impoverished kids and then end up with a poor education too.”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“SJC should be the last school that is talking about raising the fees since they get one of the highest per month tuition per student in the entire country. There are schools that are getting $25 and $35 a month while SJC receives between $60 and $70 a month.”
Frank Garbutt,
“SJC is fortunate in so many ways. I am not going to sit here and pretend it is not. It is an it is a blessing that we are able to provide the type of education we do to our young. There are many schools across this country that has wonderful students and excellent teachers, good managing authorities, but when you do not have the resources, when you do not have the teaching resources, it is impossible to say you can get out of that the quality education.”
Jules Vasquez,
The reality is that you can’t always get what you want, sometimes you get what you need.
Frank Garbutt,
“And that is where we have to be humble enough and like I said, for a lot of those parents, even without this increase, whatever the fees is, if the fees even cut in half, the reality is we still have to find many ways to help and that’s why you have scholarship funds, that’s why organizations give scholarships, that’s why the government of Belize gives. Financial aids is a natural part of schooling.
Are we cherry picking or do we want to work together and ensure that the end result is all the students get a good education. That is what we are all after. I fail to see the rationale for the back and forth on air or anywhere else. As long as we can talk, and I would love to see that be a much better situation, where the Ministry and the school, the church is an important partner and there must be dialogue between us because we bear a huge part of the cost for schooling as well and if you are going to then say that we will bear that cost, you’ve got to sit down and talk to us and be fair to us.”
Jules Vasquez,
Is SJC being singled out?
Frank Garbutt,
“That part I don’t know. All I know is that for SJC we tend to be vocal for what we strongly believe in.”
