Dujon slams proposed education cost letters as “insult to parents”

Opposition education spokesperson Felicia Dujon has sharply criticised Government’s plan to send letters to parents outlining the cost of public education per child, calling the move “an insult to parents” rather than genuine transparency.

The proposal was announced earlier this week by Minister of Educational Transformation Chad Blackman, who said the letters form part of the Government’s new National Student Development Tracker initiative and are intended to give parents a clearer picture of the State’s investment in each child’s education.

But in a press statement, Dujon rejected that explanation, saying parents do not need a bill to appreciate the value of education and that the focus should instead be on accountability for how education funds are being spent.

“This is not transparency. It is an insult to parents,” she said. “Parents do not need any bill to understand the value of their children’s education. What we need is real action, accountability and results.”

She said while millions of dollars are spent annually on public education, there is little public reporting, limited debate, and no clear explanation of how those funds are used.

“What we do need is better schools, safer classrooms, trained teachers, modern learning tools and systems that track and support our students, not these empty gestures that mock our concerns,” she said.

Dujon argued that education is a right, not a commodity, and accused the Government of prioritising symbolic measures over substantive reform.

“This Government needs to stop wasting our time and resources on letters that insult parents and start investing in the quality education of our children,” she said.

Referring to repeated references to educational transformation, she called for detailed accounting of spending.

“For many years, we have been discussing educational transformation where millions have been spent. We request that the Government at least tell us and send us the letters with a full account of every cent that has been spent in those various departments. This is what we need,” she added.

Officials say the National Student Development Tracker will use technology to better monitor academic progress across the public school system.