Permanent Secretary for Education, Selina Kuruleca says the Ministry is paying Vodafone Fiji Limited for the difference in bus fares for students following the new bus fares that came into effect on 1st September 2024.
Kuruleca says their hardworking team has navigated the necessary financial and legal processes to ensure the timely payment of the difference in fares.
She says as agreed among the stakeholders, payments to Vodafone Fiji would be made at the end of each month.
The Permanent Secretary has assured parents, guardians, and children that payments would only be made after reconciling the number of taps for both the blue bus cards and the yellow bus cards.
She added the new fares came into effect on 1st September 2024 and the verified reconciliation records were sent to the Ministry of Education in the first week of October, and after further verification processes within MOE guidelines, the payments for the difference in fares were completed on 15th October.
The Permanent Secretary says as of Tuesday, 10th September of this year, there were 103,321 students assisted through the Transport Assistance Program.
Kuruleca further noted that 62,988 students received e-transport assistance via the blue subsidized cards, while 40,333 students were provided with RSL transport assistance.
She added that the top-up for blue subsidized cards by eligible blue card holders for Term 3, 2024, opened on 3rd September 2024.
