Education ministry rejects Ascot Primary graduation gown policy amid island-wide cost debate

The Ministry of Education has condemned Ascot Primary School's handling of its recent grade-six graduation after parents and the public raised concerns that some children were treated differently based on academic performance.

Principal Mark Jackson told CVM that the school has no fixed graduation policy but shares parent-agreed criteria each year. This year, facing distracted pupils, administrators told parents not every child would march in a gown. Students placed in Ministry pathway one or two would take part in the transitioning exercise in gowns, while a separate prize-giving would recognise all learners. After requests from some parents, other pupils joined in uniform, creating two visible groups that critics described as discriminatory and humiliating.

Jackson said the split was never meant to segregate children. He noted that during the ceremony he called every pupil to the stage for a "walk of fame" based on individual strengths, including sports, poetry and drama. He has been principal since 2012 and said the school runs welfare and parenting programmes and visits families to support struggling students. Still, after reflection, he accepted that administrators were "myopic" and failed to foresee how the gown distinction would be received. He agreed there is room to revisit the approach through wider consultation.

The controversy unfolded as Major Paul Scott, president of the Association of Principals of Primary Schools, urged the ministry to issue clear graduation guidelines so practices are consistent nationally. Scott said primary graduation is not required but is often driven by parent demand. Schools may not use government subvention for ceremonies because graduation falls outside the curriculum, leaving parents to fund gowns, photography and tokens. He added that suppliers often raise prices during graduation season.

Scott said principals would welcome ministry standards if they improve outcomes and stakeholder relations, even when parents resist uniform rules imposed from above.

On the same broadcast, opposition Senator Lambert Brown defended remarks he made in the Senate linking Jamaica's third-country national transit agreement with the United States to language used by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Jamaica signed a memorandum of understanding on 10 June 2026 to serve as a transit point for third-country nationals removed from American soil. The government says the arrangement is safe, includes screening by the National Intelligence Bureau, and will not accept persons with criminal records. Brown argued the pact remains secret and called for it to be published. Government Senator Marlon Morgan has rejected Brown's characterisation as false and misleading. Morgan was unavailable for interview; his published position restates the safeguards he outlined in the Senate.