The Ministry of Education is aiming to complete the distribution of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant and school uniform and supplies voucher in all 10 administrative Regions within one week.
This is according to Education Minister, Priya Manickchand who was speaking on ‘Spotlight.’
“The reason we are doing it in that condense time is because we want parents to have this in their hands to be able to prepare their children and make them ready for September,” she said.
The distribution of the grant and school uniform and supplies voucher will commence on August 2.
“We are very happy we are starting the cash grant on the 2nd of August this year, we hope to finish it off in all ten regions in six days. That’s a bit of a challenge but we believe we can meet that.”
The cash grant is valued at $25,000 while the uniform and supplies voucher is valued at $5000, making it $30,000 for each child within the public and private school domain.
The dates and pickup location for the grant will be published shortly and Minister Manickchand noted “it may not be at your actual school, it may be at a school nearby.”
She said that they are also aiming to ease crowding this year. Therefore “you won’t see many schools with more than a 1000 students receiving on the same day at the same place.”
Over 200,000 students are expected to benefit from this initiative amounting to some $5.4b being distributed.
First year Nursery school children and eligibility for grant
Meanwhile, the subject Minister has made it clear that students who are now entering Nursery schools are also eligible for the grant once registered before June 30.
Transparency in cash grant distribution
In another interview, the Education Minister assured that the process of the cash grant distribution will be done in a transparent manner.
She noted that at each location where the grant will be handed out, there will be auditors on the scene monitoring the exercise.
“Auditors from the Auditor General Department are going to be auditing this process live as it goes on. They did it for 2021, they’ve issued a report, we’ve incorporated the recommendations made last year. So we are trying very hard to make sure this is above board,” she assured.
