Over 10,000 yet to collect “Because We Care” cash grant – Education Minister

Over 10,000 “Because We Care” cash grants and uniform allowances were not uplifted during the recently concluded four-day distribution exercise and Education Minister Priya Manickchand has reassured that systems will be put in place to ensure that those beneficiaries get their monies before the reopening of the new school term.

“We have a second phase coming up. We have to give some space between the first and second [phases] because the reason people couldn’t make it is either they’re out of the country or they’re sick or they’re in the interior or something. So, if we do it two days after the initial [distribution exercise] it won’t make any sense for them and it won’t be effective for what we want it to be, which is to give people the opportunity to come and access this grant,” she explained during an interview with Guyana Times.
To this end, the Education Minister disclosed a date will be announced in two weeks’ time for a one-day distribution exercise across the country.
“That day will be for persons who are legitimately on the register, were attending schools but whose parents could not make it to come and pick up the grant [previously],” she noted.
Additionally, Manickchand revealed that this phase will also be used to resolve certain queries that were set aside to resolve. This includes instances where students had made transfers, mostly between public and private schools, but their names were not included on the list of registered beneficiaries.
According to the Education Minister, where these queries check out, those children will get the opportunity to uplift their cash grants during the one-day distribution exercise.
The Education Ministry rolled out the disbursement of the “Because We Care” cash grants on August 2 and wrapped up the exercise four days later on August 5.
Manickchand lauded the process, telling this newspaper, when questioned, that it was carried out largely without any major discrepancies. In fact, she disclosed that thus far only two envelopes are unaccounted for.
“In two instances, we couldn’t account for two envelopes… that is, two out of one hundred and eighty-something so I think that is remarkable. The people are assuming that what happened is the envelopes stuck onto each other and perhaps we give [two] to one person. But in that whole process, two envelopes missing is really something to celebrate,” she posited.
Moreover, the Minister also disclosed that there were a couple of instances where persons, who are not entitled, attempted to uplift the grants. The Police were called in and dealt with those matters.
She went to remind that the entire distribution process was audited by the Auditor General’s Office.
“I’m very pleased that not only were we able to give the grant but we were able to show that Guyana, our Guyana, is able to conduct processes like this clean and smooth and transparent…”
“We’ve seen some small things we can do to make it even smoother for next year. But if you look at public commentary, unsolicited by the Ministry; just people offering their views on the process, you’ll see that people said it’s very smooth, very efficient and very easy,” the Minister asserted.
Under the “Because We Care” initiative, each child in the public and private school system receives $30,000 – $25,000 as the cash grant and $5000 as an allowance for school uniform.
The Government initially aimed to target a total of 193,679 students through this exercise, which is estimated to be at a cost of over $5.8 billion.
Last week, Minister Manickchand had urged parents to ensure that they use the money to prepare their children for the upcoming new school term.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry earlier this week had disclosed that more than 5000 persons were assisted through its “Because We Care” cash grant helpline which was put in place to ensure the smooth flow of the distribution.
The helpline, which addressed concerns and provided the necessary information surrounding the cash grant, was set up before the commencement of the distribution exercise.
It has received and processed more than 3500 calls and 4000 WhatsApp messages.
“The helpline was instrumental in the smooth administration of the distribution exercise,” the MoE noted. (G8)