The National Federation Party has today announced some plans for the education sector if they form the next government.
While speaking at the Party’s AGM convention in Ba, Party Leader Professor Biman Prasad says that they will provide free tuition for all degree students in all three universities in the first year of their studies.
Prasad says they will rename the existing National Toppers Scheme to Academic Excellence Scholarship and restructure the 12 priority areas so that students in all disciplines can get the scholarship.
He says they will bring a new merit scholarship for students whose family income is less than $30,000 and whose aggregate mark is not less than 250 out of 400.
Prasad adds that they will keep TELS for all existing Tertiary students, Technical Colleges, Private and Public sector employees, Pilot training for pilot training schools and not being selective.
They will also include accommodation loans scheme as well.
He says they will make TELS loans interest free including those who are currently paying their loans and those currently under the scheme and will review the payment system.
Prasad says they will fund this from savings from the current government's spending. He says the first thing they will cut is the government spending on Fiji Sun, FBC and Qorvis.
When asked by Fijivillage how much this will cost, Prasad says that they have done their studies and it is feasible and they will release more details later.
Meanwhile, NFP has announced 11 new provisional candidates for the upcoming elections.
They are Prem Singh, Faizal Koya, Alipate Tuidraki, Aman Nath, Bala Dass, Ravineshwar Dass, Narendra Reddy, Shalendra Raju, Gabrieli Naborisi, Diana Tagivakatini and Manasa Baravilala.
