New financial system causing grant payments delay - Kuruleca

Education Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Selina Kuruleca says the reason for the delay in paying out of Free Education Grants for Term 2 is due to the transitioning of the new Financial Management Information Systems inevitably meaning that some delays were experienced.

Kuruleca says the new systems require updated information and that information must be presented in a particular way, as well as the creation of single individual vendor forms.

She says their intention is for all compliant schools to be paid as soon as the system picks up their particulars.

The Permanent Secretary says the Ministry has paid 80 percent of the primary schools and 78 percent of the secondary schools grant.

Kuruleca says all Early Childhood Education schools have received their fund. She says for term 3, 50 percent of secondary schools and 38 percent of the primary schools' grants have been paid.

Fiji Teachers Union General Secretary, Muniappa Goundar had earlier said many schools in Fiji were questioning the delay in receiving the grant for Term 2 as we are now into the first week of Term 3.

While speaking to fijivillage News, Goundar highlighted the importance of providing quality education to children and asked how this can be achieved when resources are not fully available.