Minister for Education, Aseri Radrodro has welcomed the flexibility given to schools in terms of fundraising and the complete autonomy given to the school management of the Free Education Grant to look after school repairs, maintenance or new buildings.
While responding to questions following the announcement of the 2025-2026 National Budget, Radrodro says it will also depend on the government to ensure that they put in proper controls for accountability of those funds.
He says for fundraising, they will have heads of schools to ensure that they do the monitoring on behalf of the Ministry of Education.
Radrodro says the Ministry will have to see how best they can control, and ensure that proper approval, authority, and the collection is being used for the purpose it was fundraised for.
He also says with respect to e-transport cards for students, they have initiated a meeting with Vodafone Fiji and they hope to resolve all teething issues before the end of the term.
The Minister adds the 3 percent civil service pay rise, combined with the earlier 7 percent, is part of a gradual approach to improving teacher remuneration rather than an immediate solution.
He adds he is especially happy for ECE teachers as the Ministry will now be able to pay them for the full 8 hours.
The 2025-2026 National Budget debate will start on the 14th of July.
