Serious concerns are being raised that the number of students travelling in school buses has increased since the government free bus fare program kicked in on Wednesday.

The Education Ministry is now asking parents along with bus drivers to be honest after revelations that some were taking advantage of the Free Bus Fare Program.

Minister Filipe Bole said that the Program is an initiative to assist disadvantaged students to go to school without paying bus fares and to take advantage of it is unethical and immoral.

According to Bole, it had been revealed that some parents who usually drop their children in private cars are now telling them to travel to school by bus in order to benefit from the Free Bus Fare program while some parents are relocating their children to distant schools so that they can claim bus fares.

In one case in Lautoka, the Education Office and a school head teacher released a student to shift to a near school after the parents claimed that they pay $12 in bus fares per week.

Meanwhile, Bole also received word that some bus drivers are now charging adult fares to students and some even do not issue receipts.

Bole added that parents and bus drivers need to be honest and use this program as their social obligation.

Fijivillage received information yesterday that a number of school buses were overloaded yesterday and many students who normally catch the school buses could not get on when buses arrived at their schools.

Also in the morning, some school buses could not stop at the designated bus stops and had to leave many school children as the school bus was already full.

It is also becoming evident that parents who normally drop off and pick up their children in their private cars are now telling their children to take the school bus which is resulting in the overcrowding of buses.