The provision of free textbooks in 2010 will start with schools in the Eastern Education Division namely Lau, Lomaiviti, Kadavu and Rotuma.
The move was a result of a proposal made by the Permanent Secretary for Education, Mr Filipe Jitoko to the Minister of Education, Mr Filipe Bole.
The decision to start the distribution with the Eastern Division is due to the geographical isolation of these islands and the challenges they face with regards to obtaining educational resources from the main centres.
Once the distribution in the Eastern Division is completed, schools in the Northern Division will be the next recipients followed by those in the West. Schools in the Central Division will be distributed their texts to complete the exercise for primary schools.
Distribution starts this month to be in time for children to receive their textbooks before school starts next year.
All primary schools are expected to be enjoying this assistance by 2011 before it is implemented for secondary schools beginning in 2012.
It must be noted that the Ministry of Education is only providing essential textbooks for each subject and not the supplementary texts. All these textbooks are prescribed by the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry of Education.
Minister for Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts, Youth and Sports, Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment, Mr Filipe Bole