Parents will not pay school fees next year - Akbar

Minister for Education Rosy Akbar stresses that parents still do not have to pay school fees next year as the free education grant will continue.

Akbar says the fees structure has been removed by the ministry in 2015 and this has been replaced with the free education grant system.  

The Minister says the Education Ministry has been given $67 million in this financial year but there is just a $2.7 million reduction in the grants.

Akbar says the ministry is allowing schools to vire funds if needed as extra allocations have been given to schools in the past to stock up libraries and for other school operations.  

The Education Minister stresses that schools are not allowed to charge any extra fees due to the reduction in free school grants.   

Akbar says if schools are charging students any extra fees by saying students will not progress to the next level if they don't pay the extra fees then parents are urged to report the matter to the ministry. 

She says although the free education grant has been reduced, it is still sufficient for running the operations of the schools because there is a 2 fold to 3 fold increase in the money given to schools than the fees that the schools used to collect before 2015. 

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry's school grant reduction will be between $8 to $18 per child. 

Director Finance of Education, Sukhendra Lal says the current formula for primary schools when allocating grants is that schools that have 399 students enrolled get $250 per child and small schools get base grants of $10,000, $5,300, $3,500 or 3,000 depending on the school category.

He says the proposed grant distribution amongst primary schools will attract a reduction of $18 per child where schools will receive $232 per child instead of $250.

Lal says secondary schools who have more than 400 students enrolled for years 9 and 10 get $375 per child and the proposed grant distribution attracts an $8 reduction where schools will receive $367 instead of $375 per child.

He says these reductions are across all the years which is year 9 to year 13 and also includes different school categories.

The reduction in the free education grant distribution is from term three this year.