The Ministry of Education will begin the distribution of the $45,000 ‘Because We Care’ cash grant for school children across the country from next Monday.
More than 200,000 children from public and private schools will benefit from the annual cash grant distribution, which includes the school uniform and supplies voucher.
“This is a grant for public and private schools’ children who are in school. The eligibility criteria are that you have to be on the register, you had to be attending school and you had to return your text books to be able to access the grant. This is going to be happening all across Guyana over the two-week period for collection and distribution,” the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand said.
Every public and private school child from Nursery Year One to Grade 10 in High Schools, who is on a school’s register and is attending school will be eligible to receive the grant.
The Education Minister explained that if parents or guardians are unable to uplift the grants on the scheduled date, they can visit their respective Regional Education Office to uplift the grant at a time that is convenient to them.
Additionally, it was explained that persons can authorise a third party to uplift the grant on their behalf, if they are unable to do so themselves.
Persons are also reminded to walk with the relevant identification documents, which include either a national identification card (ID) or a passport.
If a person cannot present a valid form of ID, one can provide a verification letter that has been verified by the school’s principal, village leader or Toshao.
The Auditor General’s office is expected to oversee the distribution of the cash grant in all of the regions.