Cash grant funds to be redirected

Aug 25, 2015 News

…meals for children, school buses priority

By Abena Rockcliffe
The money that was used to fund the Education Cash Grant programme will be redirected to, among other things, provide meals for several children who “regularly go to school hungry” as well as to procure school buses.
This the Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine emphasised as he addressed the National Assembly during the recently concluded Budget Debate.
Dr. Roopnaraine quoted an aspect of the Budget speech delivered by Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, “We need to determine how successful we have been in providing and expanding access to education for the most marginalized groups in the country. We will ensure that the system does not perpetuate inequalities by differential levels of access to certain groups, based on their geographical location and ability to take advantage of educational opportunities.”
Against this backdrop, the Education Minister then noted the “great deal of controversy” demonstrated inside and outside of the National Assembly on decisions taken to review certain programmes, the Education Cash Grant in particular.
The Education Cash Grant programme is one that facilitated a $10,000 grant offered to each public school child. The initiative was a recent one that started under the governance of the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) administration.
Dr. Roopnaraine told the National Assembly—which now has the PPP/C sitting on the opposing side—that while A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) were in opposition “we, from a position of basic trust in the then executive and in the spirit of cooperation, approved these measures (the programmes).”
He said, however, that there has since been no evidence that those programmes “served their intended purpose, and we would yet welcome strong, reasoned, non-emotive, non opportunistic arguments to the contrary.”
Dr. Roopnaraine noted the fact that Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman had told the House that the PPP had itself come to the conclusion at the cabinet subcommittee that the Education Cash Grant programme would have to be discontinued, as it had proven to be unsustainable.
Dr. Roopnaraine noted that instead of the cash grant, the APNU+AFC government has intentions to inject the funds into programmes to increase the uniform voucher assistance programme, widen the school-feeding programme to ensure that thousands of our students do not go to school hungry.
“It would disturb honourable members of this House to learn that at the New Campbellville Secondary School, the Headmistress reported that there are about 50 students who regularly come to school hungry. The New Campbellville Secondary School is not an exception in this case.”
The Minister said that another destination for the balance of the funds, will be the acquisition of a fleet of school buses so that children can be spared the danger and degradation of travel in mini-buses.
Dr. Roopnaraine told the House that “free access to these buses will also relieve parents who are struggling to make ends meet from having to find transportation expenses for four or five children who have to be sent to school, sometimes to different schools.”
Further, he said that a fleet of buses and boats for the riverain communities is high on the list of priority for the Ministry of Education and will be pleaded for in the budget of 2016.
“I have also secured the agreement of my colleague Minister David Patterson to have speed bumps constructed outside all of our schools…We do not believe that any one solution can be applied to the challenges regarding access to education. We believe that we have to try enhancing reliable existing methods, like expanding the warm meals and general school feeding programmes for example, and to come up with new methods of creating access to education.

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Cash grant funds to be redirected

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