Children to pay own way on first day of school

Parents will have to ensure to provide their children with bus fares for the first day of school as arrangements have not been made to ensure that the students have the free bus fare vouchers before school starts.

Permanent Secretary for Education Dr. Brij Lal confirmed to Fijivillage that the vouchers have been distributed to the schools however they will have to finalize the number of students who would be issued the vouchers.

Dr. Lal said they also need to ascertain the number of new students who would be assisted through the free bus fare program and this can only be done after the first few days of the new school year.

He said everything should be ironed out within the first week of school.

Meanwhile, Telecom Fiji has confirmed that the government is yet to approve their contract to install the electronic ticketing system in all school buses which will see students issued with cards to benefit from the free bus fare program.

In the meantime, Dr. Lal said they will continue issue students with vouchers until the electronic ticketing system is ready for use.


Story by: Roneel Lal