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Uniform voucher is intact – Education Minister
— possible augmentation not ruled out
While some parents and guardians might be concerned about the availability of the Ministry of Education-issued uniform voucher for public school children, Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, has assured that the programme is intact.
The vouchers are usually uplifted by parents at the end of the school year but this did not happen at the recent close of schools across the country leaving some parents to question whether the Ministry had abandoned the programme.
Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine
But according to Minister Roopnaraine “…the uniform voucher is intact and proceeding in the way it has always proceeded.”
According to him, the Ministry will soon be issuing public announcements of how, when and where the vouchers will be available.
The uniform voucher is valued at $1,500. When asked about an increase in the value of the voucher, the Minister disclosed that it could be possible. According to him, given the fact that Government has placed a hold on the $10,000 ‘Because We Care’ cash grant, consideration has been given to have money for that programme diverted elsewhere.
He noted that the school feeding programme and the uniform voucher programmes could be among those likely to be boosted by funds that would have gone towards the cash grant. “There is a real possibility that we will increase but I have to see how the money plays out,” said Minister Roopnaraine.
The coalesced A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change Government just last week announced its decision to put the cash grant initiative on a temporary hold in order to facilitate a review of its viability. The initiative was first implemented last year by the former ruling administration – the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Government had qualified its decision to put the programme on hold because of what it described as three critical flaws. These included a lack of monitoring and evaluation, the fact that it was economically unsustainable and that it pressured the existing human resource capacity.
At a recent post cabinet press briefing Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman, disclosed that while the decision to introduce the grant was a laudable idea it was badly implemented. He also noted, then, that the review was premised on the fact that Cabinet was advised that it is a fiscally unsustainable endeavour.
“When one studies developmental economics, when you give a grant or cash transfer it must be accompanied or guided by a means test,” Trotman explained.
A means test is a determination of whether an individual or family is eligible for government assistance, based upon whether the individual or family possesses the means to do without that help.
Moreover, Trotman underscored that the purpose of the review is to ensure that the most vulnerable in society are the sole or primary beneficiary of the grant.
“So to have a grant of $10,000 to every school child without it being focused to those who need it more is not fiscally sustainable for any economy and particularly ours,” observed the Governance Minister.
As such he asserted that “we want to review it to ensure that, for example, a child who would have previously received $10,000 but is living in abject poverty would now in fact receive $100,000 whereas a child…going to a private school would not received a $10,000 because it would be depriving a child who really needs it.”
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