About 18 per cent of students still have not redeemed their bus cards, says Minister for Education Viliame Gavoka.
Speaking in Parliament last week, Mr Gavoka said the Ministry of Education had data that 63,454 out of the 77,539 students had successfully redeemed their subsidised cards for the first term this year.
He said this was inclusive of eligible students from 2023.
“As highlighted, about 18 per cent of the students have not redeemed their cards,” he said.
“Some of the reasons why there is non-redeeming of cards by the 18 per cent is that the non-verification of student application in FEMIS is factoring this. An area of concern is the change of card due to loss or damage.
“However, the new card number information is not submitted to headquarters who in turn are unable to submit it to Vodafone for loading of funds. This is a critical area.
“The new card will not work if the process is not observed about the lost and damaged card.”
Mr Gavoka said the ministry already had subsidised card holders who had not applied for the assistance for the 2024 academic year.
He also said these card holders might have balances from 2023 and used it at the beginning of the year.
However, since they had not applied for the new academic year, the card was not topped up.
“When the card has zero balance, the students can no longer use it, then they realise or their parents, and then they try to get them new cards and re-apply.
“The verification and lodging of the new application will depend on our schedules of payments with Vodafone.
“Also, multiple tapping of subsidised cards for other students and utilising the funds intended for a term are more rapid. We are taking mitigation plans by the ministry.”
He said continuous reminders were being sent out to education district officers and schools for the eligible students to apply for the assistance.
Additionally, Mr Gavoka said replacement cards were being updated in FEMIS and district officers were informed accordingly as new card numbers were loaded with funds.
