K2.5m for fees

SCREENING of applications for the school fee assistance scheme has been completed and Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) is ready to pay out, school fee assistance scheme chairman Raymond Masono says.
Masono, who is the deputy administrator policy, said this in response to concerns raised by Bougainville students in tertiary institutions in the country the ABG might not pay their fees in time for them to sit for their examinations.
But Masono said the government had allocated K2.5 million to settle this year’s school fees for Bougainville students in high, and secondary schools, vocational and tertiary institutions.
He said the fees would be paid according to the number of students enrolled.
He appealed to universities and colleges to provide a list of names of Bougainville students and their sponsorship level.
He said there should not be any double dipping in school fee assistance schemes and appealed to the students to be honest.
Masono said that tertiary institutions under the assistance scheme policy and self-sponsored students would receive 30% while HECAS students would get 10%.
He said the fee assistance scheme did not apply to students sponsored either by ABG’s human resources division cadet scheme or Bougainville copper foundation.
“This is because funding for students sponsored by HR comes from the ABG through to the division and they are not entitled to apply again for the assistance scheme,” he said.