School classes started around the country at 9:15 this morning with students expected to be in school by 9am.
However, the bus services have remained the same with many students catching buses as early as 7am or 7:30amd arriving at school at about 8am.
This happened because the school bus timetables have not changed.
When we questioned the Fiji Bus Operators Association about this issue, the bus operators remain adamant that there will be no changes to the schedule of school buses even though the Education Ministry has changed the class starting times from this week from 8am to 9am.
President Zane Dean said already school buses pick students in the morning from 7.30am to 7.45am and reach the schools at 9am.
Dean maintained the afternoon bus time tables cannot change as there is a set time to pick all students and a set time for workers.
The Education Ministry is expected to comment later today as some schools have confirmed to us that they will finish classes at 4pm today while some Primary schools have confirmed that their classes will finish at 3:15pm.
Most of the school buses normally leave the schools at 3pm.
Meanwhile there is mixed reaction from some secondary schools on the change in school starting times from 8am to 9am as directed by the Education Ministry.
Dudley High School Principal Netani Cavu said the change in times is a good thing as students are now coming early to school.
St Joseph Secondary School Principal Sister Genevieve Lou said they instructed their students to travel to school as usual and as a result 95% of their students arrived on time this morning.
However, Lou adds they did notice a few problems adding a better option would be to bring back the old times before daylight savings.
