Will Reimbursement Be an Issue for Those Who Have paid?

Patrick Faber

The method of payment, according to Faber, will be handled internally since government would essentially be paying itself.  The hiccup, he says, may come when students who have paid in advance for the exams are seeking reimbursement.  Faber acknowledges that each school has its own refund policies.

Patrick Faber, Minister of Education

“The payments are made in to the government anyway so it’s just a matter of working along with the schools to find out how much for each school the payments need to be and the payments probably will be made via one check lump sum to the exams unit which in turn then has to pay it into the CXC head office in Barbados.  The government will pay itself, in terms of paying the exams unit.  The schools collect those monies, they’ve collected some already as you have indicated, if people paid before waiting for the assistance from the government.  And so the school will not be required to pay those funds in to the exams unit of the ministry.  And so, it would seem the logical thing that the school should reimburse those students with those funds; however, you know that there are some schools that have their policies.  It’s very, very difficult to get monies back out of the system sometimes but I’m hoping that they will use better judgment here and allow that.  But worst case they would have to use it for other expenses that the student would have, all of these students of course, you know, are in fourth form and will be facing graduation expenses in the near future.  So that kind of thing I’m sure, can be worked out as well.”