Govt. committed to free education at UG before completion of first term in office - Jagdeo

Govt. committed to free education at UG before completion of first term in office – Jagdeo

Jan 01, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has said that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration will ensure education is free at the University of Guyana (UG) before the administration’s first term in office ends, the Department of Public Information (DPI) has reported.

The Vice President said that making education free at the University would be in keeping with the Government’s manifesto promise.

Jagdeo was at the time addressing a gathering at the launch of government’s part-time jobs initiative at the Diamond Secondary School on Friday.

“We promised free education in our manifesto, free university education in the five years. So… before the end of the five years, UG will become free,” the Vice President stated.

The Vice President’s statement follows concerns raised by the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition on the matter. Recently, the Opposition – led Coalition said that the Government of Guyana is equipped with wherewithal to clear the UG’s mounting student debt.

Addressing the issue at the Press Conference of the Leader of the Opposition, Economic and Youth Policy Advisor, Elson Low, stressed on the need for Government to step up and handle the matter.

“The Vice Chancellor just recently said $600 million is owed in student debt to the University of Guyana. We had called for all student debts to be written off … One day of oil revenues for the country and that debt could be wiped out instantly. The Government could have easily wiped out everyone’s University of Guyana student debt,” Low said.

He noted however that the Government keeps breaking its promises to invest in the education sector. “We see the Government saying that it intends to increase education expenditure to about 20 percent of the national budget. This year education expenditure actually fell from 16 percent which was the budget for last year to 13 percent,” Low said.

He added that, “We have seen the Government actually missed the target that they themselves had set when it comes to education expenditure and we have actually seen the supplementary budget pass with nothing extra for education.”

Low noted that while the Government is touting the idea that UG can be free in the future, it has the capacity to act now. “In what world does the University need to be free in 2025, when the Government has the capacity to make it free now… we have been lobbying for this for the longest time and it is part of plan to make it a reality,” he said.

Low’s comments comes on the heels of Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana Dr. Paloma Mohamed-Martin revealing that the UG is owed in excess of $600M in student debt.

Dr. Mohamed- Martin noted however that despite the large sum of monies owed, the University still allows students to complete their education.

“We have allowed them to continue studying and we’re collecting fees from them as they can pay and that of course is not very good for our cash flow but it’s good for the country,” Mohamed-Martin expressed.

She continued, “Because what’s going to happen, if we say ‘if you can’t pay’, and we stop you from learning, what’s going to happen to all that pent up talent and energy and all those needs that we have. So, the University has taken that decision to relax its fees.”

“One of the critical things that people do not understand about the University and its funding is when they hear that the University gets a Government subvention, they think that… funds everything for us and it actually does not…”

The UG has evolved from its launch in 1963 into a mid-sized University with over 10,000 students, more than 1,500 staff and over 500 on-campus visitors daily.

Additionally, the University has met another milestone this year with the hosting of its largest graduation, with a total of approximately 3,000 graduates.