The $10,000 grant to be given to the parent or guardian of each school age child in the public school system will be handed over at the beginning, or after the beginning, of the new school year or term. This was revealed by Education Minister Priya Manickchand in the National Assembly on Thursday. Giving an oral reply, in response to a question posed by A People’s Partnership for National Unity (APNU) member Amna Ally about the mechanism to be used to disburse the $10,000 per child, as promised in Budget 2014, and when the sums will be distributed, explained that using this method, Ministry officials would be able to capture all the registered students, including new incoming nursery students, and new students who did not attend nursery school but went to Grade 1.
She added that the Education Ministry will be informing stakeholders of the mechanism to facilitate the payments. “Guyana is so diverse geographically, and different services are available at different places, we want to make sure however we disburse this, it is the most effective and efficient way to the parents.”

According to Ms. Manickchand, around 188,000 school age children, will benefit from their parents or guardians obtaining the grant. Additionally the ministry is fully prepared to commence the distribution of school uniform vouchers, in the coming week, she said.
The Ministry is consulting with parents, with one such exercise completed two weeks prior at Queen’s College (QC) with its Parent Teachers Association, to ascertain the best way for them to receive the Education Grant, the minister explained. She stated that the parents of QC students have agreed to use the Mobile Money Service provided by GT&T, to have their funds disbursed, “So we will be consulting with other parents across the country, we just consulted with five of the nine sub-districts in Region 9 Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) over last week to find how those parents would best like to receive the money”.
It is envisaged that the grant can be used to meet costs, such as transportation, and will provide added impetus to raising enrollment and attendance rates, in addition to having the effect of increasing the disposable incomes of the parents of school aged children. This initiative will benefit the families of the 188,406 families of the students of public nursery, primary, and secondary schools, and will cost a total of $2 billion

(GINA)