Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 29, 2020 (ZIZ News): The Ministry of Education has committed more than eighty thousand dollars to assist nationals studying abroad who cannot return home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
That’s according to Minister of Education, The Hon. Shawn Richards during Tuesday night’s edition of Leadership matters.
He said the government will be providing financial assistance to more than 80 students abroad for the next three months.
“Today at the Ministry of Education we wrote cheques to the tune of $83,000 EC. $83,000 to 83 students which would equate to $1,000 per student. That is support that we intend to give to those other students over the next three months,” he said.
He said this is only part of the Government’s financial assistance plan as more than one hundred thousand dollars in total is expected to be disbursed to students overseas.
On a separate note Minister Richards noted that the flight charted to bring home 53 nationals studying in Jamaica would not cost the students one cent.
“The cost to the government for doing so is $75,000 USD or approximately $203,000 EC,” he said “The students are due to return home on Thursday of this week. And let me point out that government is undertaking the full cost of this initiative. Therefore the students are not expected to pay anything towards the cost of this charter flight coming out of Jamaica on Thursday.”
Minister Richards said the cheques for the overseas students are expected to be disbursed on Thursday.