Distribution of the government’s ‘Because We Care’ cash grant and the school uniform voucher for students in both the public and private education systems will commence on Tuesday in every region across the country.
“This year each child will get $30,000… Every child from Nursery to Secondary is entitled to this grant,” Minister of Education Priya Manickchand said on Friday during a live update on the Ministry’s Facebook page.
This year, the Government ‘Because We Care’ grant is valued $25,000 and the school uniform voucher is valued $5,000, meaning that a total of $30,000 would go to each child.
The process will run until Friday, August 5. “We are doing this for four days in every single region. So everybody, beginning on the second, will get served… all across Guyana,” Manickchand said.
Manickchand said any child who was registered before June 30 to attend school in September will be entitled to receive the grant. “Anyone who is on the register and will be attending to school in the new term come September is entitled to the grant,” she said.
Parents are being asked to check the Ministry of Education’s social media page to access the list of distribution dates and locations for their child/children. “We have made this as easy as we can. We are trying to do this as smoothly as we can,” Manickchand said.
Parents or guardians are required to walk with a valid form of identification when going to uplift the grant. The acceptable forms of identification are the national identification card, a driver’s licence or passport.
Persons who do not possess any of these documents can still uplift the grant but their relationship with the child must be confirmed by a senior official in the community or the school’s head teacher.
Manickchand explained that the distribution to be done at each respective location has been limited. “We have lowered the numbers of persons at any location, so [if] a school has more than 1000 children, we don’t more than a thousand persons at any location unlike last year,” she explained.
As a result, she said in some instances persons may be required to uplift their grants at schools different from those which their child attends. “So some places we are asking you to pay attention to the schedule because you may not be asked to go to your school. Your school may be asked to go to another school,” Manickchand related.
At each location, education officers, teachers, auditors and police officers will be present.
Manickchand further explained that parents who won’t be able to uplift the grant during the process can authorise a trusted individual to do so for them.
“Two things can happen… that parent can authorise someone currently who they trust to uplift the grant during the time and if the parent really doesn’t trust anyone or there is no one willing to go uplift for you at some point throughout the entire process, there will be an opportunity again,” she explained.
“You will have to attend to whichever place we say for everybody to come who did not get a chance to uplift the grant at that place but that will be after the process is completed,” she said.
Further, the ministry has also set up a hotline to answer any queries about the process. The hotline number is 652-9145.
This Government’s ‘Because We Care’ initiative is aimed at providing assistance to families so that they can provide the necessary resources to their children so that they can not only remain in school but to also excel in their studies.
In September last year, the initiative was extended so that children from the private education system can also benefit.
In a post on her personal Facebook page yesterday, Manickchand said she had been receiving complaints about private schools telling parents they will not get the cash grant until they pay their schools fees.
She clarified that once a child is on the register that was submitted by the school to the Ministry of Education, the ministry has catered for the grant. “AND YOU WILL GET IT. It is not dependent on whether or not you paid school fees or if you paid for the full year etc. It is NOT the Ministry’s policy that you must pay your school fees first,” she maintained.
At the same time, Manickchand did point out that private schools can’t function if they don’t receive fees and so she urged parents to figure out how they will pay or place their children in a public school where there are no fees.
