By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Business Desk

A six-percent hike in students enrolled in the nation's public school system may be the best indication yet of the inability of parents to pay the increased tuition at many private schools during these economically trying times.

"We have quite a number that came over from private schools into public schools," said Director of Education Lionel Sands, listing the phenomenon as one of the chief reasons for the increase in enrollment this Fall. "As of [Monday] when I looked at the last set of numbers there were 52,659 students [enrolled this year] in all the public schools in The Bahamas.

"Last year there were 49,700."

The change comes as private schools move to raise their tuition by 13- to 18-percent this year, as noted in Guardian Business earlier this summer. They've argued the increase as a way of passing on their skyrocketing energy costs.

Still, the decision appears to have pushed many parents beyond their ability to pay, despite some school programs in place to help parents shoulder fees.

Alfred Poitier, CEO of the National Workers Co-operative Credit Union, asserts the transference from private to public schools isn't the least bit surprising given the current economic slump and the trouble parents are having paying to feed, clothe and house their children — at least three percent more than last year, according to new Central Bank numbers.

That reality, shaped by a falloff in visitor numbers to this destination and its effect on wages for hotel and other front-line workers, has limited the ability of many to borrow school fees from the lender. Even long-term savings plans have been hampered and in some cases eaten away by more urgent expenses.

"That's one of those situations where it falls down to people for a long time living paycheck to paycheck [and] not putting away a cushion," the banker said. "And now we need to go to that cushion, we don't have it and we find ourselves doing things we didn't want to do like taking our children out of private schools."

From his viewpoint, there's been a steady decline in the number of people requesting loans for educational reasons as more and more Bahamians come to realize their salaries are stretched too thin. He said the situation was never more pronounced than for those working in the hotel industry — 70 percent of his client base — where there has been significant layoffs and work week cutbacks.

"The economy has significantly impacted that movement simply because we have seen a lot of individuals, especially those in the hospitality field [where] their work week has been cut down by 20 percent," he said. "They don't have the extra capacity to add the extra burden of school fees."

In addition to high electricity bills, private school administrators are chalking up their hikes to growth in the cost of school equipment and teacher salaries as well as the need to meet infrastructure upgrades for an expanding student body.

Out of the 10 major private schools in Nassau, the average tuition for secondary schools is $1,039. Six out of those 10 already have four digit fees. For instance, Kingsway Academy's current tuition is $1,035 a semester, and is expected to increase by 13 percent this semester. This fee does not include extras for technology use and yearbooks, among others. St. Anne's and St. John's College also raised their tuition by 17.5 percent a semester this fall.

Still, there may be some good tied to the increases even for children now having to start afresh in a new school with the kind of economic diversity they may be unfamiliar with.

The switch from private school to public education may ultimately encourage Bahamians of all walks of life to get better acquainted, say academics, particularly concerned with the socializing effect that has on new immigrants struggling to assimilate. It also hearkens back to the days when almost all Bahamians were schooled together and when differences among the majority — real or imagined — were arguably less divisive.