The Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, on Wednesday announced that the deadline for the school uniform and supplies voucher programme has been extended until January.
In video footage shared by the Ministry of Education on Wednesday, the minister informed the public that the ministry is extending the period for parents to utilise the vouchers at stores. According to Manickchand, the new deadline dates are January 9 for parents to use their vouchers, and January 15 for authorised vendors and stores to redeem the vouchers at the Ministry of Education’s office on Brickdam.
“We have become aware at the Ministry of Education that some parents for various reasons did not get a chance to cash the uniform vouchers within the time that we gave and we know how much this means to parents and we would like very much for parents to have the benefit that the government intended so we’ve decided as a government to extend the period that parents will have to shop and that store owners would have to redeem the vouchers,” the Minister said in the video.
More than 160,000 children in the public school system all across Guyana were set to receive the uniform and school supplies voucher valued at $4,000 to assist with the purchasing of their school supplies and uniforms for the new school term. This amounted to about $650 million in vouchers being distributed.
Manickchand, accompanied by other ministers, started the distribution of the school vouchers in late November. The ministers visited schools and distributed the vouchers to the head teachers who were then tasked with distributing them to the parents. The value of the vouchers was previously $2,000, however, it was increased to $4,000.
