It has been found that some Bus Companies are taking advantage of the Free Bus Fares initiative by overcharging students and giving them adult rates.
In addition, these bus companies do not issue receipts.
In another development, it has been established that some parents have stopped dropping their children to schools in their private vehicles and allowed them to travel by bus so they could claim free bus fares.
Some parents are found to relocate their children to distant schools so that their fares increase.
A case in point was the intervention of the Education Office in Lautoka where a head teacher was asked to release a student and his parents advised to enroll the student to a nearby school to their home. This was after the parents claimed that they were paying $12 per week in bus fare.
These sort of reaction from parents make data collection difficult for the Ministry of Education which wishes to work on a reliable data for good governance.
The Free Bus Fares assistance was a government initiative through the Ministry of Education to assist disadvantaged students go to school without paying bus fares.
Unfortunately, this genuine and benevolent intention has tempted some bus companies and some parents to act unethically.
The Ministry of Education not only found the behaviour totally wrong but immoral and will not condone it.
The Ministry of Education is asking parents to be honest and co-operative and bus companies to use this initiative as their social obligation.
Filipe Bole
Minister for Education, National Heritage, Culture & Arts, Youth & Sports, Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment