Value for money audit of GOAL Project

Jan 19, 2025 Letters

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Dear Editor,

A young gentleman recently made a post on social media reflecting on the disparity in terms of development between Guyana and Singapore. Both countries were poor when they gained independence in the mid-60s. I was surprised, having glanced at the responses, that no one highlighted Singapore’s intense focus on education.

I am no expert in development economics, nor am I a policy wonk. Nevertheless, what I do know is that new roads and bridges, new schools, new hospitals and rapidly rising GDP point to growth but not necessarily development. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says “people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone”.  To measure development, the UNDP deploys the Human Development Index (HDI). A key dimension of this index is a measure of the “mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age”.

In Guyana, we are failing terribly with our thrust to educate our people. The pass rate for English and Mathematics, at the 2024 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) was 66.8% and 40.4%, respectively. As of 2021, the secondary dropout rate was cited as 50% ( https://guyanachronicle.com/2021/09/08/education-ministry-zeroes-in-on-school-dropouts/#:~:text=To%20get%20those%20in%20schools,truancy%20campaigns%2C%20and%20sensitisation%20sessions  ).

The Ministry of Education (MOE) has not released updated information on the dropout rate, so I have no reason to believe the situation has improved. Of the 50% who survive secondary school, and write the CSEC exams, the pass rate for students gaining five subjects or more is 67%. However, if one were to insist on the inclusion of Math and English in the five subjects, the pass rate dips below 40%. Over ten thousand students leave our school system annually with little or nothing to show for their time in it.

True development in Guyana demands a transformational approach to education. Education must play its role in creating a Guyanese identity. All of the policy initiatives announced in recent times point to incrementalism. We need to return dropouts to the school system. Vocational secondary schools may help in this regard. Teacher training and retraining is critical. A cadre of subject specialists should be prepared, through a train the trainer programme, to travel from Point Playa to Aishalton to ensure that knowledge is effectively transferred.  The results touted by the MOE are often the effort of single teachers giving lessons to students of numerous schools. This has gone on for too long. It may be necessary to recruit teachers from overseas as the issue seems to be one of both quantity and quality, if we are to deliver a high quality of education nationwide. Many countries improved their education systems by recruiting Guyanese teachers. The time has come for us to reverse that pattern. Better pay will be required for the recruits, and the local patriots, who have kept the system going.

I have said a lot and not yet said a word about my real concern, the GOAL project. This project will receive over G$4B in 2025. One applicant sought my advice on which university to choose. I gave some superficial guidance. I assumed that the university actually had the programme they were offering, they did not. Once in the programme, the scholarship awardee experienced several cancelled classes and the addition of a “pre-Master’s” programme which extended time for completion from eighteen months to two years. All awardees suffered that same fate. Six months later, the university still does not have the major requested, and has offered awardees an option to change majors. Worse, upon enquiry, it was discovered that the university does not even offer access to research databases to GOAL awardees.

Senior local and regional educators, at the tertiary level, have expressed concern, privately to me, that the project, launched in 2021 ( https://goal.edu.gy/about-us/#:~:text=Launched%20in%202021%2C%20the%20Guyana,to%20have%20an%20educated%20workforce  ) has been able to produce such astounding results. The awardees must have been the crème de la crème of students for 378 of them to have earned PhDs in three years.   ( https://www.inewsguyana.com/over-5000-guyanese-earn-masters-degrees-through-goal-378-secure-phds/  ).

These numbers raise serious questions about the quality of education received. Unsurprisingly, there have been questions about Jain University which seems to be one of the key providers in the GOAL Project ( https://m.economictimes.com/industry/services/education/time-for-rethink-for-christ-jain-varsities-as-they-score-b/articleshow/50197508.cms  ). In addition to the billions being spent on the GOAL Project, its graduates will benefit from recently announced “qualification allowances” even though, in some cases, these degrees may not be worth the paper they are written on.

Editor, the Minister of Education is on record as being concerned with value for money at UG. I would suggest the GOAL project as the first stop for an audit. Singapore used external institutions to educate its citizenry. It also hired top-notch lecturers from overseas to develop its universities into world class educational institutions. The urgency of our development project requires the use of external institutions, and the recruitment of first-class lecturers for UG and other tertiary institutions. In the meantime, I am calling for an audit of the GOAL Project which may very well show that, as currently constituted, it is not fit for purpose.

Sincerely,

Terrence Campbell

(Value for money audit of GOAL Project)

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• GOAL Project, Guyana, Singapore, Value for money

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