$20M in book grants to be disbursed by Friday

The Education Ministry had disbursed almost $8 million ($7,848,000) in book grants to 7,848 students as of yesterday.

This was disclosed by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Jacqueline Charles, at a media conference at the ministry’s St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain head office yesterday.

The PS also by the end of today, the second instalment of payments totalling $9.017 million will be disbursed to 9,017 students.

The total disbursement in two instalments will be $16.865 million to support 16,865 students. The final payment of $3.135 million will be made by August 23.

The $1,000 grant was offered to households with an income of $10,000 or less to assist parents with expenses for school items. It was announced when the 2023/2024 budget was read last year.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert initially projected that it could cost $65 million to help 65,000 families. However, the figure was actually $20 million.

MoE mum on timely

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry has remained tight-lipped about whether repairs will be completed in all schools in time for the upcoming school term.

Under the MoE’s purview, there are 143 Early Childhood Care and Educational Centres, of which five per cent are past their design life, which means they are older than 50 years. There are also 451 primary schools, 51 per cent of which are past their design life; 128 secondary schools, of which 39 per cent have passed their design life; and 10 special schools.

Ministry officials admitted that it has fallen behind, as some facilities meant to be repaired in the last fiscal year were pushed into this new fiscal year.

From October 2023 to date, the July/August Critical Repair Programme commenced to a tune of $17 million for phase one. Phase two should begin shortly. It was also disclosed that critical repairs on 27 schools are 50 per cent completed for $171 million.

However, the ministry did not disclose whether these schools will be ready for students come September.

“We can say all schools are ready and on the night before school opens a sewer system goes down, a pipe bursts, and that would make that school not ready to open. So, we do not reduce it in those terms. At this time, we are completing the works that we are able to that will address critical matters in the schools that have been addressed,” Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said in response to questions on the readiness of schools for the new academic year.

She said they did not have the $2 billion in funding to repair all schools and are therefore prioritising schools based on what is most critical.

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