Employees of independent schools to receive grants
Published:Thursday | September 23, 2021 | 9:27 AM
Approximately $250 million in grants will be paid to employees of independent schools under the Government's COVID-19 Allocation of Resources of Employees (CARE) Programme.
Cabinet has approved the payment to academic, administrative and ancillary staff in institutions registered with the Ministry of Education's Independent Schools Unit.
More than 5,000 persons are employed to some 294 of these institutions islandwide.
Academic and administrative staff are slated to receive $40,000 each and ancillary employees, $25,000.
This was announced by Education, Minister Fayval Williams during Wednesday's post-Cabinet digital media briefing.
The provision comes against the background of the extent to which the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected employees of independent schools.
Williams said despite the impact of the pandemic and infection-prevention control measures on the educational sector, staff in public schools remain employed and continue to receive their salaries and relevant allowances.
She noted that the CARE Programme made provisions for grant payments to 2,140 employees in early childhood institutions registered by the Early Childhood Commission.
Williams said similar arrangements were requested of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, which administers the CARE Programme, for the employees of independent schools.
She pointed out, however, that this will only apply to persons at primary, secondary and tertiary institutions approved and submitted to the CARE Programme by the Ministry.
Meanwhile, Williams advised that approximately $15 billion in direct financial payments have, to date, been disbursed to assist businesses, individuals and self-employed persons affected by the severe economic disruption caused by COVID-19, since the programme's inception in mid-2020.
She said the main sectors benefiting were tourism, business process outsourcing, transport, and municipality-related operations.
- JIS News
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