$270M in school cash grant unclaimed

Aug 26, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Following the conclusion of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grants distribution exercise that was held earlier this month approximately $270 million in grants have not been uplifted. Government had allocated around $6B to the programme.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand during the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant distribution exercise earlier this month.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand on the sidelines of an event on Wednesday said that following the first cycle of the distribution exercise, just under 11,000 parents did not uplift their grants. Following this, another distribution exercise was held for those parents who were unable to uplift the first time and during that second exercise, the minister said that in most of the regions, they noticed a low turnout.

The distribution of the grants kicked off on August 2, 2022. The ministry had hoped to touch 202,000 children with the funds. “We just had under 11,000 parents who our record said were entitled that we wanted to serve on the second occasion, and unfortunately the numbers that turned out were very, very low,” the Education Minister explained.

During the second phase, Manickchand noted that in most of the regions, they saw under 20 percent of those who are entitled received the grants. “So the government’s job is to provide the funding for this grant and to make it accessible as many times as we can but we can’t force people to take it and so I think you probably would have just about 9,000 parents whose children would have been entitled and did not receive,” she said adding that the accurate figures will be released shortly.

The ‘Because We Care’ initiative which targeted students in both private and public schools is aimed at improving students’ attendance across all levels. Senior Minister with the responsibility of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh in presenting this year’s budget had announced that the government will increase the uniform grant from $4,000 to $5,000 per child. As it relates to the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant, the minister said that this year the grant would increase from $15,000 to $25,000 per child. Last year, the government had expended some $3 billion in ‘Because We Care’ cash grants to both public and private schools.

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