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Fiji’s Ministry of Education has warned it may reduce tuition grants to schools not using the grants while sending students home for not paying other school levies that could be covered by the grants.
Education Minister Filipe Bole said the ministry is aware that some schools keep the full amount of tuition grants from the government.
Bole said the grants should be enough to cover school fees and other items such as sports, school magazines and textbooks for which students are charged levies.
He said that while the ministry does not want to interfere with the levies since they are designed by school authorities, he is concerned at the “excessiveness” of the charges.
Bole said that at the same time, sending students home for failing to pay the levies is an anomaly the ministry cannot ignore “because it borders on transparency and good governance”.
