Georgetown: Minister of Education Priya Manickchand continued consultations with parents and guardians on the new initiative undertaken by the Government of Guyana to give each school age child a grant of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000). This time the Minister consulted stakeholders in Berbice, Region Six.
During a visit to Berbice, Region Minister of Education, Hon. Priya Manickchand was warmly received by the people of the region who braved the rains to turn out in large numbers, filling every meeting place.
The Minister who was accompanied by Georgetown and regional education officers engaged parents of 122 schools in several meetings on how the Ministry can best provide the grant to them. Minister Manickchand asked parents to indicate by the show of hands whether they would prefer to be able to en- cash a voucher or if they would prefer to be able to purchase goods from accredited stores with the vouchers. The parents almost unanimously chose to be able to en-cash their voucher.
The Minister also consulted the parents and guardians on the question of which financial service they would prefer to be able to get their cash. The choices were through the post office, western union, the banks or mobile money.
During consultations, Minister Manickchand encouraged parents to bring to her attention issues that were of concern to them, education related or not. Parents expressed concerns about businesses that take advantage of parents who use the uniform vouchers to purchase items for their children by increasing prices on school items. The parents were very angry that when the voucher program is not on prices for school items would be much less, but that as soon as the ministry says they are starting the program stores raise their prices. Parents were clear that ordinarily they would be able to get many more items if they paid cash than when they purchase with the vouchers and said they felt robbed. One woman at Tagore Memorial Secondary School said “these stores unreasonable. The government trying to help the people and the store gouging out them eye".
Minister Manickchand said if this his true she is very disappointed with the stores. She assured them that if the ministry finds any store that rises their prices for parents shopping with the government issued vouchers, the Ministry would deal with the individual businesses condignly.
The Minister said that on the other hand she knew of some stores that would actually give parents shopping with the vouchers special tokens. She publicly called on storeowners to have a conscience and explained to the parents that they have the power to make the stores offer competitive prices.
Parents also expressed their views on automatic promotion and made recommendation on how children should be promoted. Minister Manickchand addressed a range of other issues raised by parents in the County. She committed to bringing to the attention of the various Ministers the matters that were raised.
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