The Ministry of Education has revealed that 9,800 data issues were identified during processing of the $200 Back-to-School assistance, significantly slowing payments to families.
Minister for Education Aseri Radrodro said the delays stem largely from inaccurate or incomplete information submitted by parents at the school level, not from a lack of effort by officials.
Of the 9,800 problematic applications, the Ministry has verified and cleared 5,507, which have now been forwarded to the Ministry of Finance for payment.
Breakdowns provided by the Ministry show 3,811 cases involving multiple names linked to a single phone number were resolved, 352 private school issues were corrected, 91 incorrect phone numbers were fixed and sent for payment and 237 missed payments previously overlooked by Finance were identified and returned for release
In addition, Ministry teams manually cleaned up 1,142 applications with incomplete or incorrect information and processed 1,016 manual entries submitted to headquarters.
Mr Radrodro stressed that payments are handled only by the Ministry of Finance and can proceed only after all verification checks are completed.
He also pointed to another major bottleneck — parents being unreachable.
“A significant portion of remaining delays is due to parents not answering calls or having diverted numbers when our helpdesk attempts verification,” he said.
The Ministry confirmed that Batch 2, covering more than 1,000 applications, was paid out yesterday, with work continuing this week on remaining cases.
“We are committed to every child,” Mr Radrodro said.
“But the process starts at the school gate. Accuracy at the outset is essential to ensure families receive their assistance on time.”
