5200 schools miss subsidy

 By MIRIAM MALAWA 

MORE than 5,200 schools will miss out on the Government’s education subsidy when classes start this week because they failed to comply with requirements, Education secretary Michael Tapo says.

Tapo said out of the 13,620 registered schools in the country, only 8,419 would receive their tuition fee-free funds.

Tapo said schools that missed out had failed to provide vital information required by the department such as school census forms. 

Some of the school accounts had been dormant because of the quick withdrawal of money. Others had given false figures of students and teachers, he said.

He said the schools were being reminded again to comply with the requirements if they wanted to receive the government subsidy.

“I am reminding schools to comply with requirements and make sure that standard requirements are met and sent to the secretary’s office in Waigani,” he said. 

The Government has allocated K605 million to be distributed to schools this year. It has already paid out the first quarter allocation of K200 million to the banks.

He said K7.7 million had been paid to the ANZ Bank for schools that had accounts there, K165.8 million to BSP and K11.7 million to Westpac.

He said schools that did not comply with rules would receive their TFF funds in the second quarter – two to three months into the school year. 

“The message is I would like to remind the schools, boards of management and boards of governors is that enough is enough. Schools have been neglecting rules and they need to be penalised for it,” he said.

“We must do that so that government resources are being used wisely and correctly and teachers would teach well.”