Ascot Primary graduation gown policy draws condemnation from former DPP and education ministry

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn has condemned Ascot Primary School in Portmore after reports that dozens of students were prevented from wearing graduation gowns because they did not meet the school's expected standard on the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations.

Reports that surfaced on Saturday indicated that pupils with lower results were told to wear uniforms instead of caps and gowns, march behind higher-performing classmates, and sit at the back of the graduating class. CVM News understands the school notified affected families beforehand and that parents agreed to the arrangement, including a reduced graduation fee.

The Ministry of Education issued a statement on Sunday condemning the administration for what it called inappropriate and unacceptable treatment. Education Minister Dr. Dana Morris Dixon said, "no child should experience humiliation, exclusion, or discrimination in an institution entrusted with nurturing their development."

Speaking at a graduation ceremony for students at Prospect College, Llewellyn warned that the school risked placing children on a negative path and called for clarification, an apology, and a promise that such distinctions would never happen again.

Principal Mark Jackson later told CVM's Lead Story that he accepted the school's approach may have been wrong, saying administrators had been "a little myopic" and that placing uniformed and gowned students together had caused the controversy. He said it was never his intention to discriminate or humiliate pupils. However, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Scott, president of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Infants and Primary Schools, said Jackson told him he did not apologize and stood by the decision, arguing that stakeholders had agreed to the policy.

In other developments, Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby challenged Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie's claim that the Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation receives $600 million monthly for road repairs, insisting the figure is roughly $85 million and far too small to address corporate-area road deterioration.

Opposition Senator Lambert Brown sparked Senate uproar on Friday with remarks about third-country nationals linked to the controversial immigration arrangement. Government Senator Marlon Morgan dismissed the claims as false and politically contrived, reiterating that no individuals with criminal antecedents would be accepted under Jamaica's memorandum of understanding with the United States.

A recently elected councillor in the Savanna-la-Mar division has reportedly tendered resignation from the People's National Party with immediate effect.

Thirty-year-old Dominican power plant operator Carlos Bazin died in a Friday crash near the Ocean Point Housing Scheme intersection in Lucea, Hanover, bringing the parish's motor vehicle fatalities to 20 since the start of the year. Police also suspect a Toyota Noah involved in a fatal crash along the PJ Patterson Highway was the getaway vehicle used in a Red Bank, St. Elizabeth break-in where $1.5 million in cash and more than $2 million in goods were stolen.