$10,000 cash grant for October disbursement-misuse will attract prosecution –Ed. Min

Sep 04, 2014 News

The Ministry of Education could be ready to disburse the $10,000 grant promised to public school students by October 6, 2014. At least this is according to a statement issued by the Ministry yesterday which stated that all processes are on schedule to meet the proposed disbursement date.
Many parents and guardians of public school children have been anxiously awaiting the financial support which is expected to go towards the schooling needs of children at nursery, primary and secondary levels.
Moreover, the Ministry in its statement outlined that “anyone found to be engaging in any form of malpractice, fraudulent or corrupt activity regarding the disbursement of this $10,000 per child grant will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Minister Priya Manickchand (centre) addressing a gathering of stakeholders during a recent public consultation.

The financial grant was first announced by Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, when he presented the 2014 national budget earlier this year.
Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, had informed that while the Ministry would have been happy to have the money afforded to parents before the start of the new school year, it was delayed in order to ensure that new entrants could benefit as well.
Based on the law, children are only recognised as students until they commence attending school.
The Ministry, in its quest to raise awareness about the grant, had hosted a number of public stakeholder consultations across the country which saw the attendance of a wide cross section of parents and guardians of children in the public school system. At those fora the Education Minister herself addressed the stakeholders and even sought to clarify that the $10,000 grant will be afforded to each school child and not merely per household.
According to the Ministry’s statement, following the completion of the countrywide consultation, moves were made to embark on a transparent verification process which this publication understands saw the names of students being entered into a database.
Moreover, the past two months saw Head teachers from across the country meeting with their respective Regional Education Officers to commence the lengthy verification process. The Head teachers were tasked with authenticating the number of students currently enrolled in their respective schools who are on the schools’ registers.
According to the Deputy Chief Education Officer (Administration), Ms. Donna Chapman, the process is moving along smoothly as the Ministry now awaits the final lists of names of children which will include those who commenced Nursery School, Grade One (Primary) and Grade Seven (Secondary) for the first time this week.
These lists, she expects, will be submitted to her office and that of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Olato Sam, within the coming week, so as to facilitate the completion of a ‘master list’ of students who will be eligible to receive the $10,000 cash grant.
The Ministry is therefore urging parents and guardians to register their children immediately so that the final verification process can be completed.
Moreover, the statement outlined that “with the administrative processes currently running on schedule, the Ministry is set to commence disbursement of the cash grant by Monday October 6, 2014.”
It was pointed out too that based on feedback from the public consultations, the Ministry was able to deduce that the preferred method of disbursing the cash grant is through money transfer services. This therefore means that parents will be able to receive cash instead of a voucher as is obtained with the uniform support offered by the Ministry.
According to the Ministry, further information on the grant will be forthcoming through the press which will inform parents and guardians of the date, places and times when they will be able to uplift the cash grants for their children.