The Education Minister has been meeting with the managers and heads of schools in Vanua Levu to ensure the new academic year starts on time.

Minister Rosy Akbar says at the moment, the school start date remains on January 18 for teachers and students on January 19.

She adds they are now working towards fixing school buildings that were damaged.

Akbar says 10 schools in the Northern Division sustained severe damage due to the category five cyclone.

“Military forces engineers, the NDMO, and the Australian Defense Forces will help us fix those so that we can start the school on 18th. The rest of the schools which have sustained minimal damage, we are going to work with the school managers to fix those.”

Akbar says children’s education is a priority that should not be compromised.

She has acknowledged the assistance they have been receiving from various organizations.

“In case we decide that we need more time- that decision will come from the Ministry of Education. The other assistance that continues to pour in is school stationery and a lot of other NGOs are working with us. We have an education cluster and we will meet on Monday in Suva.”

Akbar says in worst-case scenarios they are looking at building temporary learning shelters so the school can kick start on the scheduled date.