–will oversee new Guyana Online Academy of Learning

FORMER Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana (UG), Professor Jacob Opadeyi, has been appointed head of the newly established Guyana Online Academy of Learning, which will facilitate the roll out of 20,000 online scholarships for interested Guyanese. According to a press statement from the Ministry of Education, the new academy will be housed at the Ogle Estate, East Coast of Demerara (ECD). During a tour of the facility on Tuesday, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand engaged Dr. Opadeyi and staff of GOAL on the important role they are

expected to play in facilitating the development of Guyanese, countrywide. It was reported recently that the 20,000 scholarships will be offered over five years, with 4,500 of those scholarships to be awarded this year alone. Guyanese could apply to pursue any of the over 80 programmes from five internationally acclaimed universities being offered through GOAL. These are the University of the West Indies Open Campus; the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC); the University of Applied Sciences (IUBH); the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the JAIN “deemed to be” University. Programmes will be offered from the certificate level up to the PhD level. The timeline for completing these programmes range from two months to three years. Application forms are now available on the Ministry of Education’s website at www.education.gov.gy. The GOAL website will be launched this week to facilitate the submission of digital applications by interested persons. According to the Ministry of Education, this initiative is the Government of Guyana’s way of providing opportunities to Guyanese for training, academic growth and lifelong learning. It is expected that over time, more universities will come on board to provide additional programmes in various areas.