Some private and church high schools in Tonga still dealt with major blow to their financial position because they have yet to receive any of their frozen funds of more than a million from the government.
Ex-students hold concerns about the impacts of the hold and how it can affect students’ learning outcomes.
As Kaniva News reported previously, the money was intended to top up the teachers’ pay but a government audit discovered that some of the grants had not been used according to the purpose of the funding programme.
Veteran Journalist Kalafi Moala reported in February that the Ministry of Education and Training (MET) demanded “the Catholic Schools Education Authority a reimbursement of about $500,000 before any further funds would be released to them”.
Moala claimed MET still withheld about TOP$1 million for Catholic Schools.
The Director of Catholic Education declined to talk to Moala regarding the matter.
READ MORE:
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- Auditor General demands repayment as hundreds of students at private school can’t be found
Possible solution
But a Catholic school alumni think tank which is based in San Francisco, USA has recently suggested a possible solution that might help resolve the issue.
It said the government should deposit the teachers’ pay directly into their bank accounts and avoid further paying the money through the schools.
The think tank livestream programme which was weekly hosted by former teachers and top scholars of ‘Apifo’ou College said the government wanted to make sure the money was used accordingly.
Former teacher and ex-student Tonga Finau told the programme the Catholic schools have used the money for a “good cause” but unfortunately that fell outside the scope of the contract with the government.
Two other hosts of the programme, Rodney Halapio and Falakiko Kolo, agreed with Finau that it was the government’s constitutional responsibility to assist the schools.
They said the government and the churches should fix the issue as soon as possible.
As Kaniva News previously reported, the latest hold in question was revealed in February by a former Prime Minister and director of the Catholic schools Lord Sevele ‘O Vailahi in a speech he delivered during a live streamed ceremony in Tongatapu attended by the Prime Minister Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa.
“Today only part of that money has been paid to the teachers,” Lord Sevele said.
Sevele pleaded with the Prime Minister to intervene.
The Tongan funding was supplemented by a shared grant equally donated by the New Zealand and Australian government.
In 2016 the Free Wesleyan Church Schools’ Director of Education, Dr Mele’ana Puloka, said it had been two years since New Zealand and Australian funding was held back from the church’s schools.
She said she knew there were good reasons why the funding had been withheld, but the church could not only pay its teachers and disregard other staff working outside the classrooms.
Those grants were finally released the same year.
