Assembly helps students with K1mil school fee subsidy

THE Motu Koita Assembly (MKA) is helping students with a K1 million education subsidy this year, an official says.
MKA education adviser Frank Kawage told The National yesterday that the funds were to help parents with school fees.
He said the assistance covered students from early childhood learning to tertiary institutions.
“Actually, we are paying for Government-run institutions,” Kawage said.
“The private schools are expensive and it is also with the understanding that those parents that are sending their kids to private schools, we believe they are able to pay so our target is to assist those who are unable to pay.”
He said for elementary and primary schools, the assembly was paying 100 per cent of the parental component.
“For secondary and national high schools, the assembly will offset 50 per cent of the parental component,” Kawage said.
“For national high schools, their structure is different to the ordinary secondary schools so there might be some special considerations and we might pay more than secondary schools.”
He said for tertiary students, their priority was on universities so the assembly would pay a certain fixed amount.
“When we started, we paid K5,000 for university students because there were not many applicants, but last year it decreased to K2,000 for our university students,” he said.
“For this year, it depends on the number of applicants.”
Kawage said the assembly would pay K2,000 or above for university students and for other tertiary institutions, the minimum remained at K1,000.
“If a school imposes any project fees, those will be the responsibility of the parents,” he said.
Kawage said as soon as the funding was cleared by the Treasury Department, the assembly would pay the fees.
“Most likely, payment will be done in late March and before April,” he said.
Kawage said last year, 7,500-plus students applied for the assistance.