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Education grants to be disbursed in new school term
– Ministry still to decide on method of distribution
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is dissatisfied that the Ministry of Education has not finalized a method of disbursement for the $10,000 grant which is to be given to parents and guardians of each school child in the public school system.
At the most recent sitting of the National Assembly last Thursday, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand replied to questions appearing on the Order Paper for oral response. The questions were posed by APNU’s shadow Minister of Education Amna Ali and focused on disbursement of the grant.
The Minister was asked what mechanism will be employed by the Ministry to disburse the grants provided for in the 2014 Budget and when the money will be distributed.
In response, Manickchand said that the money will be handed over at the beginning, or after the beginning, of the new school year.
The Minister explained that by using this method, ministry officials will be able to capture all the registered students, including incoming nursery students, and new students who did not attend nursery school but went to grade one.
But the Minister could not inform the House about the method that is likely to be used to disburse the funds, since according to her, a final decision is still to be made in that regard.
She said that the Ministry will be informing stakeholders of the mechanism to facilitate the payments. “Guyana is so diverse geographically, and different services are available at different places, we want to make sure however we disburse this, it is the most effective and efficient way to the parents”.
The Ministry is consulting with parents to aid in the decision making process. Manickchand told the National Assembly that recently “we” met with Queen’s College Parent Teachers Association, to ascertain the best way for them to receive the education grant.
She stated that the parents of that school have agreed to use the Mobile Money Service provided by GT&T, to have their funds disbursed, “So we will be consulting with other parents across the country, we just consulted with five of the nine sub-districts in Region Nine over last week to find how those parents would best like to receive the money”.
According to Minister Manickchand, around 188,000 school aged children will benefit from the grant.
It is envisaged that the grant can be used to meet costs such as transportation, and will provide added impetus to raising enrolment and attendance rates, in addition to having the effect of increasing the disposable incomes of the parents of school aged children.
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