– Education Minister urges parents of nursery entry children
…As Ministry prepares to distribute cash grants in September
The Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, recently made a call for parents to register their toddlers for placement in the public education system, as well as to receive the Ministry’s ‘Because We Care Cash Grant’, in a timely manner.
The Education Minister, in a recent social media post, noted that children who are 3 years of age on or before June 30,2025 will be eligible for nursery school placement in the new academic year.
“If your child is going to be three (3) years on or before June 30th this year, your child is going to be eligible for entry into nursery school in September. You have to apply to get into a nursery school; go either to the nursery school or to your regional education department, get the application form, or you can get it from us online,” she noted.
The Minister also urged parents to register their child/children early, to ensure that they receive the Government’s ‘Because We Care Cash Grant’ in a timely manner, and without any hiccups.
“The other important reason for getting registered is, we use those registers to determine who will get the ‘Because We Care Cash Grant’, and you have to be registered by March 28 of this year (2025), which is two months away, before you can get the cash grant in September.”
However, the Education Minster noted that persons who miss the deadline will still receive their cash grants.
“If you don’t get registered by March 28, which is when we stop collecting the registers for the purpose of the cash grant, you will still be registered for entry into nursery school but it may hamper when you receive your cash grant and that has been a problem that we have been encountering over the years,” she said.
Regarding the application process, the Minister stated that parents should present documents such as birth certificates and immunisation cards.
However, if these documents are not available, the Minister explained that students will still be able to enter a nursery school in the new academic year.
“If you have none of those documents, we still let you into the school, I know they’re kids without birth certificates for different reasons; you can’t find the immunisation card, still go and try to get registered; we won’t stop any registration because of the absence of documents, but if you have the documents take them along with you,” she stated.
The ‘Because We Care Cash’ Grant has increased from $40,000 per child in 2024 to $50,000 per child in 2025, benefiting students from nursery to secondary.
Along with the $5,000 School Voucher Grant, each child will now receive a total of $55,000.
This is expected to benefit some 205,000 children in total.
