The government has spent over $200 million in rebuilding schools which were destroyed by Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016.

This was revealed by the Attorney General and Minister for Education Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum during a side meeting at the Commonwealth Ministers meeting in Nadi today.

Sayed-Khaiyum says over 225 schools were damaged of which some are still in the process of being rebuilt.

He adds the government’s utmost priority was to get the education system up and running after Cyclone Winston.

The Education Minister says the biggest issue post Winston was the standard of construction.

“Ninety five percent of the schools that we are rebuilding, none of them don’t have any architectural plan or engineering certificate, so now government is actually rebuilding and it’s costing us more than $200 million dollars and we are yet to complete all of them.”

Sayed-Khaiyum says government is now ensuring that all schools being rebuilt is of climate resilience standard and more conducive to a good education environment.