So, finally, there is public admission of what we all knew from daily experience: that the government is unable to meet the cost of good education for everyone.

What a deceitful charade this has been. I remember a meeting with the late great Oliver Clarke in The Gleaner's boardroom in 2016 when a government minister boastfully insisted that his government would fulfil Michael Manley's promise of “free education” by the abolition of auxiliary fees.

That dangerous fiction has persisted since. School enrichment programmes have been obliterated, principals made part-time beggars, and education standards weakened.