Kamna Kumar 
Minister for Home Affairs Pio Tikoduadua expressed concern over racist online comments regarding the 2025 scholarship distribution, particularly those targeting the iTaukei community.
This comes after many people have been discussing the distribution of the 8,700 scholarships for 2025, with the majority of recipients reportedly being of iTaukei ethnicity.
With the breakdown from the TSLS, iTaukei students received 6,181 scholarships with the equivalent of 71.05 percent, Fijians of Indian Descent students received 2,278 scholarships with the equivalent of 26.18 percent, Rotumans received 74 scholarships with 1.9 percent, Chinese got 2 scholarships, while the others received 165 scholarships.
Tikoduadua states that these hateful remarks undermine national unity efforts.
He says they are addressing a “racialised mindset” within the iTaukei community, which is hindered by derogatory comments, especially from Indo-Fijians.
He clarifies that the distribution is based on population proportions, not bias.
He also warned against equating merit with a single ethnic group, emphasizing talent across all communities.
He urged Fijians to consider the impact of their words and support racial healing.
Minister for Education Aseri Radrodro will seek clarification from TSLS on the scholarship breakdown, emphasizing that awards are based on applications.
“TSLS has their own policies, criteria that have been in existence for some time, amended, and that is the policy they have introduced and used to allocate scholarships to those who applied and met the criteria.”
He also says that scholarships include short technical and vocational courses.
Radrodro confirms that all scholarship data comes directly from TSLS.
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