Good news for 200,000 early childhood education to Year 13 students with the announcement yesterday by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka of a $200 cash assistance for each school child in a family whose combined annual income is less than $50,000.
Mr Rabuka said Government decided to make the $50 million back-to-school support available because of the higher than usual inflation and the fact that increased prices for many basic consumer items had stretched family budgets.
Deputy PM and Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad said the payment would initially be rolled out to parents via Vodafone’s M-PAiSA and Digicel’s MyCash platforms before being extended to guardians and students in maritime areas who would have to provide the address of the nearest post office or agency to receive the payment through TMO.
To apply for the back-to-school support, parents are urged to fill in forms at their respective schools beginning today.
Applications close on January 20 and payments would begin from January 25.
