Education Minister Sonia Parag yesterday clarified that no child registered in the school system for the 2026-2027 academic year will be denied the government’s cash grant, despite complaints on social media that some students were turned away because they were absent from school.
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of a sod-turning ceremony for a new block at the St. Joseph’s High School, Parag said the ministry’s policy is that all children listed on a school’s register for the new academic year, including those entering school for the first time and those continuing their studies, are eligible to receive the grant.
The ministry, she noted, has been closely monitoring reports of alleged denials and has been verifying each complaint through a real-time reporting system involving education officials across the country’s administrative regions.
“We have checked our records; I have a group in which I have all of the teams from the various regions and they update by the second,” Parag shared, adding, “We checked every school based on the social media posts and we ensured that every child is getting that cash grant.”
According to her, some of the issues that have arisen were linked to family and custody disputes rather than the eligibility of students. “You have some social issues where a grandparent is showing up for the grant along with a mother and father. There are custody battles ongoing,” she said, noting that the ministry’s policy is that the grant should be paid to the person with whom the child is living and who is responsible for their care.
The minister maintained that aside from those isolated cases, the distribution exercise has proceeded without major challenges. “Other than that, the process has been smooth,” Parag added.
One parent on social media, in a video post, complained that she was turned away when she went to uplift the grant after being told by teachers that her child was absent from school for a number of days.
Further, a parent whose child attends Clonbrook Primary School said that she was initially denied the government’s cash grant and that teachers openly discussed her daughter’s medical condition before eventually issuing the payment after she began recording the encounter.
The parent told Kiskadee Watch that she accompanied another parent who had also been told she was ineligible to receive the grant because of her child’s attendance record. She said the other parent explained that her child had missed school due to illness and that the absences had been communicated to the class teacher. However, school staff questioned why the child should receive the grant.
Discussion