Free tuition fee distribution a long process

By KOLOPU WAIMA

board chairman of Hohola Demonstration Elementary School urged the Government to release the free education tuition fee to the Department of Education instead of putting it into the Bank South Pacific.
Susuve Sevesoa said the system the government used to put the free education fees in the bank, especially BSP was not good as most of the schools would miss out on the money.
He said the Government should release the tuition fees to the Department of Education and the department would distribute it to the provincial education administrations where the schools could easily access it.
The Education Department would handle this easily because it handled the school subsidies effectively in previous years, he said.
“I got my first payment of the tuition fee in July this year but I am one of the schools that suffered from the system. I saw that the system was not working effectively as it was a wrong system that the government used. It should consider this and put the money back into the Department of Education,” he said. Mr Susuve said the Department of Education and its provincial divisions of education knew the schools account better than the bank and the board of managements and principals could find it easy to collect cheques from the provincial education administrations.
He said Hohola elementary school enrolled about 800 students and was almost shut down because of the long process involved in getting the money.
“I was running the school on borrowed money to buy basic materials. Some close friends and companies that we associate with helped us to successfully complete the term,” he said.
Mr Susuve said his concern was for the government to change the method of putting money to the right organisation which was the Department of Education.
“My concern is that, the government must put the money to the National Department of Education as it is dealing with schools and should be working effectively,’’ he said.