FREE EDUCATION - if ever there was a misnomer. Quality education requires quality schools, quality teachers and quality resources. This comes at a significant cost.

Being a public good, public schools are funded by taxpayers out of the public purse. Thankfully, successive governments since independence have and continue to place a high premium on education as a means of developing our human capital: our most precious resource.

This emphasis on the provision of free quality education is consistently reflected in the annual budget allocations. The cost of providing such free quality education to the nation's children is shared by the general citizenry; those who contribute a higher proportion of their income to taxes are therefore carrying a higher education subsidy responsibility.

The issue of funding schools is a complex one and has over the years always been a source of contention, given the diverse nature of school types and management arrangements.

The recent statement by the Minister of Education on the issue of "donations" being sought of parents by school officials has given the impression that principals and school officials have been acting unethically at best and illegally at worst.

People unfamiliar with the complexities of managing a school will fail to grasp the untenable situation that school officials have been placed in over the last seven years owing to a significant shortfall in funding from the Ministry of Education.

This reduction (as much as 60 per cent) has placed principals between the proverbial rock and a hard place; forcing many to become very creative in their attempts to make up the deficit in order to keep school not just open and running but safe and secure.

Having been forced to become professional beggars, they are left with no choice but to seek donations from parents and members of the business community and engage in fundraising activities on an ongoing basis.

The success of these initiatives will to a large extent be a reflection of the socio-economic status of the school community. Thus, some schools will be able to generate large amounts of monies through their parent/teacher arrangements, inclusive of its alumni while others may not be so fortunate.

The practice of asking parents/guardians to make voluntary contributions upon registration of their children has been used as a strategy out of sheer necessity - this is the time when they are most receptive to the request.

While the ministry has quite rightly indicated to school officials that the imposition on parents/guardians of any form of "registration fees" is illegal, it encouraged (and gave guidelines through relevant circulars over the years) the practice of soliciting donations and the engagement of schools in fundraising. This has essentially become the mandate of local school boards.

And herein lies the conundrum. Is the minister speaking from both sides of her mouth? On the one hand principals are to desist from seeking donations from parents/guardians at registration, considering it an u