School managements given flexibility to use free education grants, more fundraising activities allowed

From the 2025/2026 National Budget onwards, the government will make the use of the free education grant fully flexible.

While making the announcement, Deputy Prime Minister, Professor Biman Prasad says this means school managements will now have full autonomy over how the free education grant is spent.

The current rules such as limiting only 20% for building and compound maintenance, 15% for IT equipment, or 30% for administrative and office expenses, will be removed.

Schools may choose to use 90% for school expansion or allocate none for maintenance if there is no immediate need.

School managements will have the full freedom to plan their spending, save funds, or even borrow against the grant for major investments.

$65 million has been allocated for the free education grant for more than 225,000 students.

The current restriction that limits school fundraising to once per year has also been removed.

Fundraising will now be open and flexible, but voluntary.

Professor Prasad says they believe restoring this partnership will promote a deeper sense of ownership and engagement in the education of our children.

The School Management Association will be provided with a first-time funding grant of $500,000.

This will support capacity development and leadership training for school managers.

$300,000 each will be provided to the Principals Association and the Head Teachers Association for the first time.

Teachers’ salaries are increasing further across the civil service by an additional 3% in this budget.

The government plans to recruit 1,125 new teachers.

This includes 962 secondary school teachers, 117 primary school teachers, 41 early childhood education teachers and 5 special education teachers.

They are recognising the critical role of Early Childhood Education by funding ECE teachers on a full-time basis.

The government will now regularise their appointments.

This places them on equal footing with other teaching staff.

$416 million is allocated for teacher salaries in the upcoming financial year.

The school curriculum is under review. Vernacular language study will be made compulsory up to a certain educational level.

Through the Government's transportation assistance scheme, they continue to support students in travelling to and from school, either by bus, rural service operators, or boat transport.

For students with yellow cards (parental income above $16,000), Government will provide a 50% subsidy.

This means that no child or parent will bear any additional cost, even though student fares had doubled.

Top-ups will now be available only to students with active FEMIS IDs.

Once a student leaves school, their subsidy will automatically cease.

Government is allocating $153 million to fund tertiary studies for 24,653 students, which includes 11,593 continuing students and 13,060 new students.

This will be a historically high number of students under full scholarships.

The new increased rates for scholarship allowance are as follows:

For Merit Based High Achievers Local Scholarship, the scholarship allowance will be increased from $6,800 to $7,600 per year.

For other Merit Based Schemes where students are from outside the campus city, the allowance will be increased from $5,000 to $5,600 per year. For other Merit Based Schemes where students have their home in the campus city, the allowance will be increased from $3,000 to $3,200 per year.

For Students with Special Needs Scheme, the allowance rate has been increased from $6,800 per to $8,600 per year.

This is to accommodate travel costs and purchase of special gadgets for study purposes.

The government is also introducing Equity and Inclusion Based Allowance which is to accommodate students from low socio-economic background particularly for students whose both parents are deceased and are either taken care by legal guardian or staying in home care.

These students will receive an additional allowance of $1,000 per year.

This is applicable to students on Home and Away Campus Allowance and students will be required to provide necessary documents.

Government had introduced a minimum cut off mark of 250 out of 400 in year 13 for all degree programmes.

To bring some equity in the scholarship scheme, the cut-off mark for students from rural and maritime zones will be reduced to 240.

The number of TVET scholarships is being increased from 2,780 to 4,500.

TVET scholarships will be extended to students with special needs, similar to the existing provisions for higher education.

Apart from construction, tourism and hospitality and automotive, 5 categories will be added.

These include Traditional Handicraft making with 300 scholarship grants for training on basics of Wood Carving, Tapa or Masi and Weaving.

Performing Arts with 200 scholarship grants for improving Dance and Song for the entertainment industry.

Community Tailoring with 300 scholarship grants for training on Basics of Sewing.

Women Small Business Operations with 100 scholarship grants for training on basics of Bookkeeping and Marketing.

Vocational Literacy and Numeracy with 1000 scholarship grants for 3 months of training for early school leavers intending to pursue vocational certificate III and IV.

For overseas scholarships, apart from degree and post graduate programmes, the government is now expanding it to allow students who wish to undertake TVET qualifications in Australia and New Zealand.

$3,000 per student will be allocated for visa lodgment and processing.

TSLS will engage a licensed agent to get visas processed on time and send students before commencement of classes.

Meal allowance has been increased from $150 per week to $250 per week, commencing from Semester 2 of 2025.

Stipends will be paid directly to students account, and they can decide on renting out or staying in hostel.

A new initiative of Contribution Scheme will be introduced.

Under this new scheme, students will be allowed to apply for partial tuition assistance on a cost sharing basis where TSLS will pay 50% of the tuition fees while students will take care of the remaining 50% of the tuition fees.

This scheme will provide incentivized bond service whereby their bond service will be 1:1, lower than the current 1.5 times for tuition only students and 2 times for students on both tuition and allowances.

$847 million is allocated to the education sector.

The Ministry of Education is allocated $675 million.

This includes $86.5 million for higher education institutions.

$153 million is provided for tertiary scholarships.

Over 84 schools across Fiji have been renovated, repaired, and upgraded.

Many of these schools had suffered damage from past cyclones or had long been in a state of disrepair.