The Ministry of Education will ensure that transport is available to take the 6188 exam students who are appearing for national exams this year home after their examinations are done.

Minister Rosy Akbar made the comment after stating that the subsidised eTicketing cards for students were earlier restricted to only be usable from 6.30am to 9am and from 2.30pm to 5pm.

This is to stop students from abusing the cards to skip school and get up to mischief during and after school hours.

Ms Akbar said they also found that some parents were abusing the subsidised cards.

“Neither students nor their parents will pay a single cent and parents wishing to pick up their students after examinations are most welcome to do so,” Ms Akbar said.

“Unfortunately, on the eve of examinations, misleading statements were made insinuating that students will somehow be deprived of education because the Free Education Grant is being used to rapidly arrange transportation so that children can get home safely to their parents. Absolute nonsense!”

She called on MPs to make sure they know and understand all the facts before making such statements.

“Our statements can have a huge impact on our people – in this case, the statements caused confusion, fear and anger among Fijian parents and students, distracting them from important studies,” she said.

“Parents can rest assured that their Government is using budgeted allocations and managing funds wisely to fully benefit students.”

She highlighted that 151,692 primary school students and 64,019 secondary school students were assisted through Free Education in the last financial year.

About 70,801 students have been assisted through the subsidised bus fare scheme, while 32,927 students were assisted through the rural transport vouchers.

Despite the reduction in the ministry’s budget this financial year, they continued to assist 103,728 students through Government’s Student Subsidise Transport Assistance initiative.

In addition, Government continues to provide funding to 44,812 students pursuing tertiary education through the National Toppers Scholarship Scheme and the Tertiary Education Loan Scheme.

There are 1422 early childhood teachers, 6188 primary school teachers and 5582 secondary school teachers.

The ministry has plans to recruit 65 early childhood teachers, 90 primary and 95 secondary school teachers, positions which have been created through retirements, resignations, deaths, and migrations.

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