Last night on this newscast, you heard complaints from the villages of Isabella Bank and Scotland Half Moon about the Mennonite-managed schools in their communities which were increasing fees and imposing corporal punishment rules.
Well, the schools are privately managed; they get no government subvention - so no one can stop them from raising fees. But on the issue of corporal punishment, Education minister Patrick Faber today said that will be illegal in a month's time. But, bigger than that, he said he has a simple solution for the problem: it's called amalgamation.
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"This is an area that we have said tirelessly we need to look at in terms of bringing schools together, bringing resources together. Scotland Halfmoon as I understand it is within 3 miles of Bermudan Landing which is within a half of mile of the other village; I think its Double Head that has a school. There are too many schools in this small area. All of these schools are small and are staff by people who the government provide a salary for and we could do much better, so to the parents who have a issue with the Mennonites school in Scotland Halfmoon we say out your children on the bus and take them to Bermudian Landing. I cannot get into the fees that the private school is charging but certainly as it relates to the corporal punishment issue that we will not take likely at all, that is completely unacceptable. Private school or government aided school corporal punishment once we sign it out of the law in early May will not be tolerated by teachers or by principals for that matter. So it is a warning to that school that it will not be tolerated."
The school management has explained to villagers that their external funding has been cut so they must increase fees….
