$4B allocated for GOAL programme could have transformed UG into “world class institution” – McDonald

Jan 24, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – The $4 billion budgetary allocation set aside by the government for the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) programme could have been used to transform the University of Guyana (UG) into a “world class institution.”

This was suggested by Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Coretta McDonald on Monday during the ongoing budget debate in the National Assembly.

As reported, this year the government allocated a whopping $135.2 billion to the education sector in the budget and of that sum, $4.1 billion has been set aside to support the University of Guyana operations while $4 billion has been allocated for the GOAL programme.

Speaking on these budgetary allocations, the Opposition MP said that the university is “under attack”.

“Could you imagine our University of Guyana, sixty-years-old, has been given $4.1 billion, while a three-year- old GOAL Scholarship programme has been given $4.1 billion, we have our own university and we don’t seek to promote and build what we have,” a visibly disturbed McDonald said.

McDonald deemed the move by PPPC government as a “travesty and unpatriotic,” claiming that the current regime do not want the university to grow, because “they are fearful that it poses a threat to their control freakism.”

According to McDonald, who is also the Shadow Minister of Education, over the years the university has emerged as an important institution that indirectly checks the government and its excesses.

She added that the physical attendances lead to the congregation of students in societies, and they discuss the world and invariably, students leave the university conscious and more educated. “Added to this Mr. Speaker they sit in classrooms with lecturers who teach them how to think critically. This is the fear of the PPP, that they cannot control the university and what they cannot control they do not fund,” McDonald continued by saying.

The Opposition MP went onto to state that the government’s push for online education, should be coupled with the university. She noted that the two objectives should be combined; on one hand the government can develop UG and at the same time move to online learning.

“It is unacceptable that the university’s funding is now equaled to an academy of learning that is under direct political direction. This would have been the perfect opportunity Mr. Speaker, to fund the University of Guyana and make it into a world class institution,” the MP said.

She added that there is no monitoring and evaluation of the GOAL scholarship programme and research by the Opposition has uncovered major issues with the programme.

Meanwhile, in her presentation on Monday, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand said that any person in Guyana, whether young or old, who wishes to pursue an education, the government would try to facilitate this as best as it can.

She said the PPPC’s late leader Dr. Cheddi Jagan started the University and at the time, it was the “PNC who called it Jagan’s night school.”

“It is now our University of Guyana and we will fund it and continue to fund it and it is very precious to us, it is very precious to us,” the Minister argued.

The Education Minister went on to state that there is a difference between UG and the online learning programmes being offered. She said that, “Coursera is different from GOAL, GOAL is different from the University of Guyana, it is important that we understand what they are.”

As she elaborated on the GOAL programme, the Education Minister said thus far, some 21, 442 Guyanese have been afforded study opportunities through the programme. Additionally, she said that through a programme called GROW, which falls under GOAL, allows people who dropped out of school or did not get a chance to finish school to further their education, will now have an opportunity to enter a university. Some 1,430 students have graduated from this programme, she briefed.

The minister made it clear that UG and GOAL are not in competition and that the government will continue to fund the two. She said that the PPPC government will continue to offer opportunities to the populace whether short courses, certificate programmes, degrees, or masters programmes to as many people as possible who wish to be qualified, “and we will not apologize for that.”

She continued that Coursera is a series of short courses offered to the people, to up skill or re-skill themselves through various and renowned universities like Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton, and Oxford.

According to the minister, the PPPC government introduced the online programme shortly after it assumed office in 2020. She said that the, “Commonwealth of Learning was begging the APNU/AFC to offer Coursera in 2020, in March, but they didn’t.”

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