PRIOR approval must be given by the Ministry of Education before any school facility is used for political party campaigns.
Minister for Education Aseri Radrodro said this approval must be given by the ministry’s permanent secretary Navin Raj.
“According to MOE Policy, any use of the school should have the prior approval of PSE,” Mr Radrodro said.
“The request should have clearly stipulated the purpose of the request for use of schools and the logistics involved.”
Mr Radrodro raised concerns about the recent use of a Nadi school facility by a new political party last month.
“In this instance I can state that the head of school in the subject school has not requested for any approval for the use of the school for political gathering.”
Section 113 of the Electoral Act 2014 state it is unlawful to conduct campaign activities or to post or distribute any campaign material inside a public office or infrastructure including schools.
Subsection 4 bans the use of any government-owned vehicle to conduct campaign activities unless the vehicle is being explicitly deployed to provide required security.
