‘Because We Care’ cash grant: APNU/AFC never took responsibility for its failure – Jagdeo

…slams APNU/AFC prioritising Govt perks over children’s welfare

Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo has criticised former President David Granger for failing to take responsibility for the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition’s failure to meet the needs of the nation’s children during its term in office — including the discontinuation of the cash grant and the alleged use of state funds for perks.
Speaking at his weekly press conference, Mr Jagdeo’s comments came in response to a recent letter to the editor by Mr Granger, in which the former President criticised Minister of Education Priya Manickchand for stating that the “Five Bs” (5Bs) programme, introduced under his administration, had failed. Minister Manickchand claimed that the programme had effectively deprived the nation’s children of financial support they had previously been receiving.

In the letter, Mr Granger also defended his party’s decision to cancel the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government’s “Because We Care” cash grant, stating that the move was justified and fair.
In 2014, the PPP/C introduced the “Because We Care” cash grant, providing $10,000 to each child enrolled in public schools across Guyana. At that time, approximately 167,000 students benefited from this initiative, amounting to an annual expenditure of about $1.6 billion.
“In five years, if it’s calculated $1.6 billion times five, that’s $8 billion which the children would have received had they not discontinued the grant. Instead, he replaced this with the 5B’s programme,” Jagdeo told the media on Thursday.
According to the VP, former President Granger has a very different view of his tenure’s success than the PPP/C does when assessing the measures he implemented during his term in office. Thundering in frustration over the failure, he expressed a range of things they did with the money instead on continuing the “Because we care” cash grant.
“And then, in this letter, he seeks to justify that somehow this was a fair replacement of the grant his Government took away from the children. With $8 billion, imagine—you could have bought over 1,000 buses. But he doesn’t see it this way. And in his Government, the reason that they express for taking this away from the children was that they could not afford it.”
He added, “But in the same [APNU] Government, they were spending over $1.6 billion more per year on dietary food for the Government. So clearly, his Government made a choice to spend the money on food for Government officials rather than giving it to the children.”
He highlighted how APNU spent even more than what they would have spent on the cash grant and stressed that APNU did not see it as a priority to meet the needs of the nation’s children.
“That’s the difference. In a respectful way, I want him to consider that—his Government did not see the children’s grant as a priority. And look at some of the things they spent money on during that period. They spent money on rentals, which increased by a billion dollars, and vehicle maintenance, maybe nearly by $1.5 billion. I can go down the long list of where money was spent because the budget grew massively.”
Jagdeo said APNU collected $94 billion more per year in taxes by increasing taxes. However, none of these funds were allocated to the nation’s children. He said that APNU, once again, claimed that they could not afford the grant. Speaking on behalf of the Education Minister, he backed up her claim that the 5B’s programme did not properly cater to children and failed.
“So that is why Priya Manickchand can proudly say today that his 5B’s programme catered to a few people—maybe a few persons got those buses. But 35 buses donated can’t replace the $1.6 billion per year that you took away from the children. So I hope that he, now in his quiet moments, would reflect upon this and understand why people were so aggrieved by this policy.”
Meanwhile, on Monday the PPP/C Administration kicked off the distribution of the “Because We Care” cash grant in regions Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).
A total of $11 billion has been allocated in the 2025 Budget for the distribution of the grant to 205,000 children in public and private schools nationwide. This year, the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant has been increased to $50,000, coupled with the $5,000 uniform allowance, giving parents a total of $55,000 per child.