The Ministry of Education will commence the distribution of the “Because We Care” cash grant on May 12, providing $50,000 in cash and a $5,000 uniform voucher per child enrolled in public or private schools across the country.
During the commissioning of the Practical Instruction Centre in Hope Town, Region Five, Minister of Education, Hon. Priya Manickchand, reaffirmed the PPP/C Government’s commitment to supporting students and parents through this initiative. She noted that the grant, which was first introduced under the PPP/C Government in 2014, started at $10,000 per child, with a vision to increase it to $50,000 over time.
“Over the last four years, it’s been the smoothest process. You come once your children are on the register. The only problem is if you come early, there will be a little bit of a line, because there is always somebody coming first and somebody coming last. But at the earlier stages, there is always a line. If you come at 2:00 o’clock, you can walk straight up to the teacher’s desk. And this year, we are making it less cumbersome by expanding the number of schools, so we are not grouping schools. This will happen in your school or the school your child was registered in at the 28th of March this year, so it will be even fewer numbers at each school for you,” Minister Manickchand explained.
The Minister criticized the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government for scrapping the grant when they took office in 2015, putting additional financial strain on parents. Instead, the coalition introduced the Five “Bs” Initiative—which was meant to provide Boats, Buses, Bicycles, Breakfast, and Books—but failed to benefit the majority of students.
Minister Manickchand noted that under the APNU/AFC administration, only six schools in Region Five and three schools in Region Six received breakfast, while Region Ten and Region Two received none.
“In your region, you got two buses, and that caused so much strife because the two buses could not cater for the entire school population. So then people started saying that ‘I’m coming from Ithaca, and it’s not coming to this village’ or ‘It’s coming to this village, but it’s not going to that village,’ and it deepened our strife and division rather than helped. There were no extra boats bought, and I don’t know if your children got boots,” she stated.
Minister Manickchand emphasized that the coalition Government not only abolished the “Because We Care” cash grant but failed to provide a proper replacement.
“So they abolished the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant and put nothing in its place—not breakfast, not boats, not boots, not bicycles,” she added.
Since returning to office in 2020, the PPP/C Government has reinstated and expanded the cash grant programme, now including private school students. The initiative continues to be one of the Government’s flagship commitments to ensuring that parents receive the necessary support to invest in their children’s education.
