OVER the past few weeks, I’ve been reading that there are some persons who have begun to lobby for the government to make tertiary education free once again and I am in total agreement with this move.

If there’s one thing I think we can all agree on, it would be that education (formal and informal) is just plain necessary for any sort of development to occur; and our education system is segmented into nursery, primary, secondary and tertiary, with each level dealing with a different facet of our growth and development individually and collectively. But there is also the fact to consider that access to each of these levels is not readily available for all.

In Guyana presently, public education is free from the nursery to secondary levels onl,. and as such, some people have begun advocating for education at the tertiary level to become free.

Free tertiary education is, in fact, enshrined in Guyana’s constitution. Article 27 of the Constitution of Guyana states: “Every citizen has the right to a free education from nursery to university, as well as at non-formal places where opportunities are provided for education and training.”

What’s important to note too is that this article falls in Chapter II of the constitution, which connotes the principles and basis of the political, economic and social systems in Guyana. Other facets detailed in this section include every person’s right to sovereignty, the right to own personal property, the right to free health and social care, inter alia.

Guyana, under the People’s National Congress (PNC) Government, offered free public education from nursery to university. But that was gradually changed to free education from nursery to secondary; and as such, in my opinion, if we can gradually forget about one part of the constitution as we have from free education, what’s stopping us from gradually moving away from these other facets? Not to be all doom and gloom, but that is worrying.

And it’s not only that this is enshrined in our constitution, but it is apparent that not many persons have a tertiary education. The Bureau of Statistics recently released the findings of a study which showed that only 2.3 per cent of Guyana’s population has a Bachelor’s Degree, typically referred to as a ‘first degree’. Comparatively, in developed countries, that figure stands at about 30 per cent.

I’ve been to a few of the information and awareness sessions organised by the Department of Energy on the emerging oil and gas industry. And without fail, at each and every one of these, the topic of local content and local employability comes to the fore; and without fail, Director of the Department, Dr. Mark Bynoe, underscores that right now, Guyana just does not have that pool of skilled persons to work directly in the oil and gas industry, and as such we must allow ourselves to learn and develop these over time.

Tertiary education, whether at UG or at the technical institutes, becomes pivotal in developing the skills needed in this post-2020 ‘transformed’ Guyana. And this education must be one that is certified and accredited, but accessible to all. We cannot settle for less.

I’ve seen advocates proffer that we use the oil revenues to fund free tertiary education. President of the Guyana Trade Union Congress (GTUC), Coretta McDonald, has another view.

It was reported that she opined that the country should not wait until 2020 and beyond to garner those oil revenues and then use them to fuel avenues for free tertiary education.

Instead, she said: “In everything we’re talking about, we’re referring to the oil revenues, but the thing is if we don’t put systems in place from now, when we have the revenues from the oil then we will go elsewhere. We need to start planning and put the plans in place now, so when we get the revenues from oil, then we can channel them directly into that.”

I can’t say I disagree with her because, again, it comes back to us not having those skills that we need and are now seeking to equip ourselves with those skills.

I know little about economics, so I won’t put my head on a block to ascertain that the country could support and maintain this for all citizens. But I do believe that the constitution should be adhered to and I do believe that education is a necessary part of development, and as such, I think free tertiary education for all is something we should strive for as a nation, once more.