WITH an allocation of $60.7 billion in the 2021 national budget, the education sector has received a 16.7 per cent increase from the sum allocated in the 2020 budget and again taking the largest slice of the budgetary pie.
Among others, some $5.2 billion will go towards the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of schools and other education facilities nationwide; $3.3 billion to finance operations at the University of Guyana (UG); $884M to equip and retool technical and vocational training centres; and $1 billion towards the provision of over 4,500 online scholarships to be granted in 2021.
These measures and more were revealed by the Senior Minister with the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, when he presented the budget to the National Assembly on Friday.

Education accounts for some 15.8 per cent of the $383.1 billion budget that was presented, and includes several measures that supports the government’s aim to strategically position the education to respond to demands of labour market.
“The PPP/C government’s vision for Guyana requires an education sector that equips all of our people, including those seeking alternative pathways to work, with the skills that they need to play meaningful roles in the economy of today and of tomorrow,” Dr. Singh declared, during his over four-hour presentation.
He elaborated that the government is working towards developing a world-class education system that will ensure equal access to quality education, at all levels, for all children in Guyana, regardless of their backgrounds.

“We intend to increase and improve the quality and quantity of trained teachers, learning resources and materials, and to increase the use of innovation and technology in order to improve education delivery and learning outcomes,” Dr. Singh said.
Towards increasing access to education, Dr. Singh noted that for 2021 the government will be embarking on a review and mapping exercise with a view to increasing the number of schools across the country.
It was only recently that the Ministry of Education (MoE) carried out two symbolic sod turning exercises for the construction of a new nursery school on the East Coast Demerara and a new secondary school on the East Bank Demerara.

During his Friday speech, Dr. Singh announced that in addition to these schools being constructed in 2021, the government will also begin works on two new secondary schools in Region Six (East Berbice Corentyne) and Region Nine (Upper Takutu, Upper Essequibo).
Additionally, reconstruction works have been budgeted to be carried out on the Abram Zuil Secondary School in Essequibo to improve facilities for learners in that region.
Since assuming office in August 2020, the government has had to do much work to improve the state of the public education system, since the system inherited by the administration left “much to be desired”.

“The sector is plagued by inadequate supervision and lack of accountability within the levels and this needs to be reversed immediately if we are to ensure that a well-balanced education is our collective goal,” Dr. Singh said.
Also towards the government’s drive of offering a “top-tier” education system, Dr. Ashni revealed that the more that 4,500 online scholarships that the government will be offering this year is parcel to the 20,000 online scholarships that the government will be offering over the next five years.
“We plan to begin execution of this initiative through a multi-agency formulation including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Service and the Ministry of Labour,” Dr. Singh explained.

He noted that Guyanese has thus far shown quite the affinity for online learning, with some 64, 605 citizens having signed up for the Commonwealth of Learning Coursera courses which are currently being offered free to all Guyanese citizens. The programme offers more than 4,000 free online courses from various universities around the world.
In addition, almost 4,000 teachers were also trained in the integration of innovation and ICT into their teaching-learning process via the Profuturo online platform, as part of the government’s role out of blended modalities to ensure learning continuity for all students during the school closure that was brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

$5.2B for construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of education facilities nationwide

$3.3B to finance operations at UG

$884M allocated to equip and retool technical and vocational training centres.

$1B budgeted to support the online scholarships to be granted in 2021