Parents and guardians can start claiming the $100 textbook grant on behalf of their primary school charges from Monday.
Minister of Education Kay McConney said in a statement late Friday that authorities were ready to disburse the funds promised by Prime Minister Mia Mottley last month.
She said they had decided on an electronic filing process to allow for application for the grant – covering primary school textbooks purchased between July 1, 2023, and September 30, 2023, up to a cost of $100 per child – to be done online.
On August 11, Mottley announced that starting this academic school year, parents/guardians will be eligible to claim financial assistance for textbooks purchased for primary school students, in both public and private schools.
McConney explained that since then, officials in the ministry had been working with the Ministry of Finance, the Treasury Department as well as the principals and information technology officers of primary schools to fine-tune a system that would make the claim process easy for parents and guardians, from claim request to payment.
“As you can imagine, it took time to consult and coordinate so that we all could agree and sign off collectively on how best to apply; how the claim requests would be processed; who would verify claims and how the verification would be done; what would happen if parents and guardians did not have access to a bank or credit union account; where parents and guardians would go for help if you have questions or if you run into technical or technological challenges.
“These questions had to be addressed plus human resourcing needs had to be worked out to process all the expected thousands of claims in a timely manner…. I am happy to say that we are now ready,” the minister said.
McConney explained that an online, fillable form to capture necessary details, titled ‘The Primary School $100 Textbook Grant 2023-2024’, would be made available until October 16 at the Ministry of Education’s website – www.mes.gov.bb, the Barbados Government Information Service’s website – www.gisbarbados.com, and the Media Resources website – www.mrd.gov.bb.
Receipts must be photographed or scanned and submitted with the form.
“Your receipt should show the name of the store, the receipt number, and the date of purchase,” McConnet said.
Once submitted, the forms will go to the child’s school, and the verified form will then be sent to the Accounts Department of the Ministry of Education which will facilitate the payment to the parent or guardian’s bank or credit union account. The name on the bank account must match the name of the person submitting the grant request in order for the grant to be processed.
“Mismatched names will cause processing delays because further investigation would need to be done,” McConney explained, adding that persons who do not have a bank account should inform their child’s school so arrangements can be made for them to be paid by cheque.
She said the Information Technology Coordinators at schools will be available to assist individuals who need help filling out the electronic form online.
“Parents or guardians requiring assistance should contact the principal at the child’s school to make an appointment. Appointments for assistance are to be made with the school, and not with the Ministry of Education,” McConney said.
“If you need to go for assistance to the school, please walk with your receipt(s) for the primary school textbooks purchased, your National Identification card, the student’s identification card and the account number of the bank or credit union where you would like the government to deposit the money.” (BGIS/EJ)
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