Latest update January 28th, 2026 12:35 AM
Govt. budgets $5.8B for GOAL, $14.5B for UG
– as $186B set aside for education sector in 2026
(Kaieteur News) – The government has allocated a sum of $183.6 billion to support the education sector this year, with a portion of $14.5 billion budgeted for the University of Guyana (UG), and $5.8 billion for the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL).
This is according to the Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh who presented this year’s $1.558 trillion national budget on Monday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
Speaking on the education sector, the Senior Minister noted since the government abolished tuition fees for UG from 2025, the number of applications to pursue higher education at the institution increased significantly to over 26,000 for the academic year 2025/2026, compared with 17,800 in the 2024/2025 period.
In recognition of the high demand for access to UG programmes, the minister said that this year some $14.5 billion has been allocated to finance its ongoing and expanded operations. As it relates to the GOAL programme, the Senior Minister said that with 10,805 scholarships awarded last year, this year to support the programme they have set aside a $5.8 billion allocation.
In relation to the sector, an area which took a big portion of the allocations is the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of schools across the nursery, primary and secondary level.
According to Minister Singh, this year $24.3 billion is earmarked for school infrastructure. Further, in ensuring have resources needed in the classrooms, he disclosed that all nursery schools have access to reading books and all students in primary and secondary schools have all the required textbooks for each subject area. To this end, in 2026, $2.3 billion is budgeted to replenish textbooks, workbooks and reading materials across all levels.
Additionally, school grants which is distributed to each school for the purchase of classroom materials, this year, an allocation of $3.1 billion was made to continue the distribution of school grants. Another important initiative is the National School Feeding Programme, which a sum of $7 billion is allocated to continue the programme.
Notably, the flagship Guyana Digital School which the government launched in December 2025, the Senior Minister related that over 22,000 students have since registered. The Digital School which revolutionise access to educational content by making the curriculum free for supplemental education, the minister announced that $176.1 million is allocated to continue its operations in 2026.
On the topic of Technical and Vocational Training (TVET), it was mentioned that a further $2.5 billion is allocated to expand access in 2026. “Speaker, in 2025, the sum of $183.5 billion was spent to support all of our interventions in the education sector. In 2026, $183.6 billion is budgeted for the sector,” the minister concluded.
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