The Fijian Government invests almost $700million in the education sector every year, an investment that Education Minister Premila Kumar describes as huge.

“Every year the Government provides almost $700m towards the education sector because we believe in our children,” Mrs Kumar said.

“We want our children to become good citizens, we want them to improve their quality of life and we want them to be good neighbours when they come out of the school system.

“That is the return we are looking at when we invest heavily in the education sector.”

Mrs Kumar said in terms of education, the Government had eased the burden on parents.

“As you know, from 2014, we have been providing free education grants to schools, free textbooks to our children, transport is being paid, tuition is being paid.

“The only thing we ask from the students is to focus on their studies and become who they want to become.”

Mrs Kumar said the Government had also eased the burden on school management committees.

“Before, you can ask any school management committee, they’ll tell you how difficult it was to run a school.

“Teachers, parents and the school management committees were forever engaged in fundraising activities, but we don’t do that anymore. We provide free education grants.”

The minister said the Government understood that the school environment needed to be conducive, the ambiance needs to be right so that children are interested in that ambiance to study.