Mr. Kiloe says it is sad that the policy appears to promote more dependency on aid when government has been asking aid donors to foot the bill.

Mr. Kiloe says he is pessimistic about the policy because even now government is unable to meet teacher travel expenses and failure to fulfil the promise to meet the school fees of tsunami affected students.

He says it is unfortunate the policy has been publicly announced without a wider consultation with all education authorities.

The Choiseul Premier says government would have spent money on training more teachers to meet the growing demand for teachers.

He says the number of untrained teachers nearly outnumbers trained teachers.

Mr. Kiloe says government would have done more to improve teacher's condition of service, address teacher discipline, empower parents to take responsibility for their children's education, and to provide easy access to basic education, not access to free education.

He says the policy could have been called school fee subsidy rather than free education.


Source: SIBC News