The distribution of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant wrapped up today across the country and though the process was smooth, and efficient, Education Minister Priya Manickchand says she has taken note of concerns raised by some parents about being unable to benefit from this initiative because they missed the registration date (June 30) or that the name of their child was not on a register.
However, she says the possibility still exists for these students to benefit from the grant once “they look at what they have remaining and whether they can serve all of those persons still,” while reminding that the budget for this initiative was initiated on a register submitted by the various schools.
“There are going to be two second tranches [distribution], the first one being people who are legitimately on the list but could not get here for whatever reason and then we’ll announce those dates shortly and then the second one would be whether the people who were not registered on time didn’t do what we ask them to do [to see] if we have enough in our budget to serve them,” she said while providing an comment on the exercise’s conclusion.
Parents or guardians were required to register their child on or before June 30 to be eligible for this grant. The Ministry had used the register provided by school to budget for this distribution.
Overall Minister Manickchand said she was pleased with the process and thanked the ministry’s staff, police officers and auditors- all who played a role in this distribution.
In excess of $6b was distributed through this exercise and over 200,000 students are beneficiary.
