Minister for Education Aseri Radrodro has dismissed rumours that parents may have to fork out extra money to pay for their children’s transport and school fees next term.
He said everything remained the same at this stage.
However, Mr Radrodro did clarify that some issues were noted in the Rural Service Licence (RSL) services provided for students in rural areas.
“I think there are some issues regarding Rural Service Licence (RSL) in terms of those that provide transport,” he said.
“That is where we are finding out that there are those who initially agreed to provide transport, they have difficulties in the continuation of the transport and they fail to make the necessary arrangements with the school and LTA. So students become affected by that.
“Otherwise everything should remain the same. It’s just that providers need to ensure that they are on time with their provision of services and they have to be there every time, all the time,” Mr Radrodro explained.
When asked if Government still bore the cost of paying RSL providers, Mr Radrodro replied: “Yes, very much so.”
Meanwhile, he said like other civil servants, teachers no longer had to worry about contracts.
While in Lami attending the Fiji Principals Association (FPA) annual general meeting, Mr Radrodro was asked about the contract system and whether teachers were still bound by contracts.
“I think we need to be rest assured that the contract is no longer applicable,” he said.
“We (Ministry of Education) initiated that there should be no more contracts so if there are contracts, I had apologised in Parliament because of the miscommunication within the HR department and what the Public Service Commission (PSC) had notified that day.
“Whether you are a principal, assistant head principal, VP or teachers, the contract is no longer valid.”
