There's been a reduction of $200M in government’s education budget and reduction of $2.7M for school grants - Akbar

There has been a reduction of $200 million in the government’s education budget and a reduction of $2.7 million for school grants.

While speaking at the Central Division school leaders and managers meeting at Saint Joseph’s Secondary School Hall, Minister for Education, Rosy Akbar says there are 875 early childhood centres in the country which caters for 19,109 students and are taught by 1,452 teachers.

She says there are 757 primary schools in the country which caters for 150,640 students and are taught by 6,232 teachers.

Akbar says there are 173 secondary schools around the country that caters for 67,651 students and are taught by 5,732 teachers while there are 1,898 special education children.

Akbar says when the free education grant was introduced in 2015 the government had spent $359 million alone.

She says if the schools have been using the grants for the purpose it was given from 2015 to 2019 then the ministry expects the schools to have libraries full of books, science labs and computer labs to be up to date but the reality is very different. 

Akbar says 53 schools have had their grants centralised by the ministry because the audits of those schools show there has been mismanagement of funds by the school.

Meanwhile, Akbar assured the school heads that the grants for term three will be distributed to the schools in 2 weeks or maybe earlier than that.

She says as it was earlier announced in the budget, the technical schools will soon be referred to Fiji National University and the university will receive grants for the technical colleges.

A management representative of Christian Mission Fellowship Primary and Secondary School, Manasa Kolivuso asked the Ministry of Education officials if the ministry is giving the schools freedom to organize fundraising to cover up the shortfall in term three school grants.

Deputy Secretary for Education, Timoci Bure says schools can host fundraising activities but money is not the solution for all the problems in this world.

Bure says if money was the solution for everything then the ministry would not be seeking things which we can give without using money.

Meanwhile, Akbar says although there has been a reduction in the budget, it should never be an excuse for schools not to perform to their level best and the ministry will not compromise the education of the children in the country.

The school grant for primary schools is $250 per student, years 9 and 10 get a payment of $440 per student, years 11 and 12 attract a payment of $485 per student and year 13 attracts a payment of $610 per student.

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