“Because We Care” grant could increase to over $50,000 by 2025 – Min Manickchand

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C) widespread electoral campaign for the 2020 elections promised that each child would receive $50,000 at the end of their term in office, under the “Because We Care” cash grant, but Education Minister Priya Manickchand has hinted that this figure could surpass the initial allotment.

During a social media programme on Monday evening, the Education Minister stated that the “Because We Care” cash grant will be increased to at least $50,000 by 2025.
“So, the Government had said very clearly, the PPP as a party and the PPP as a Government when we did this in 2014, that it was the beginning of a cash grant programme that we were doing for children and that each year it would rise until it reaches $50,000, so there was always that conversation, that promise, that was the commitment that we would raise this incrementally, year after year until it reached at least $50,000,” Manickchand related.
The “Because We Care” cash grant initiative was first introduced in 2014 and saw each public-school child benefitting from $10,000. However, the initiative came to a halt by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) Government but was reinstated in 2020 after the PPP went back into office.
In addition to resurrecting the programme, the PPP/C increased the value of the cash grant to $15,000. This was alongside the $4000 uniform grant, meaning every child received a total of $19,000.
This year, the “Because We Care” cash grant will be increased to $25,000 while the uniform grant will jump to $5000, resulting in each child getting $30,000.
“We came in immediately, we promised to get on the campaign trail that we were going to reinstitute the cash grant and then raise it until it became $50,000 per child. [The] first year we give $15,000, second year we’re giving $25,000 that’s this year and before the end of our term it will be at least $50,000, it could very well be more,” the Minister said.
Last year, the Government, through the Ministry of Education, distributed over $3.2 billion in the “Because We Care” cash grant and the school uniform and supplies grant to 172,000 children in the public school system, prior to the expansion of the initiative to 17,000 private school children to the tune of $320 million.
In addition to the cash grant, the Education Minister stated that in September, when the new school term begins, every Grade Six student will receive free breakfast.
The Education Minister revealed that “every Grade 6 child come September for the first time in this country will get breakfast from the Government of Guyana, a nutritious healthy breakfast that is consistent and reliable made by persons in the community, things like black eye and Channa, roti and curry and egg balls and so on, so things that children can not only get a full stomach on and learn more but also nutritious healthy meals.”