BEGINNING today, Guyanese from all walks of life can begin applying for one of the 20,000 scholarships being offered under the umbrella of the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL), as the portals for the 2022 registrations have now been opened.

As the ground-breaking programme continues to gain momentum, the Government of Guyana has successfully added several names to the list of international universities to which Guyanese can have access.

As it is, GOAL has partnered with eight new institutions to meet the challenges and demands of various sectors in Guyana, including oil and gas, engineering and construction, as well as information security.

For this year alone, GOAL is set to offer in excess of 187 programmes that can be accessed from 15 reputable academic institutions across the world, including India, Africa, the United Kingdom and Germany, among others. The programmes, which are being financed by the Government of Guyana, range from certificate-level, all the way to PhDs.

Among the new master’s degree programmes available are Criminology & Social Policy; Web Design and Development; Agile Methodologies and Digital Transformation; Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energies; Geotechnical Engineering and Foundations & Disaster Risk Management and Climate Governance.

Meanwhile, it was announced that the PhDs being introduced this year are Philosophy; Education; Business Administration, Management, and Public Health.

GOAL’s Director Professor Jacob Opadeyi had encouraged potential applicants to follow the instructions carefully when completing the online application form. “It is important to submit only the documents requested and ensure they are properly scanned and uploaded to the online portal,” he advised.

Currently, GOAL has a comprehensive list that guides applicants on the essential documents required to complete the application process successfully on its social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as the GOAL website.

As previously outlined by President Dr Irfaan Ali, GOAL sets out to offer 20,000 online scholarships over a period of five years. In the first year alone, the programme received more than 8,000 scholarships. The persons who were not successful last year, have since been encouraged to re-apply in 2022.

Recognising some of the shortfalls in the application process, GOAL has embarked on an effort to employ academic counsellors to serve in each of the education districts of Guyana. “The counsellors are expected to conduct tutorial sessions, formulate and mark assignments, advise and counsel students throughout the period of their studies,” a previously published notice read.

It explained, too, that the academic counsellors are also expected to be committed to the learner-oriented approach and to be advocates of the system.

FULFILLING MANIFESTO PROMISE
The rolling out of the programme, the brainchild of President Ali, marks the fulfilment of campaign promises made by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) during the 2020 General and Regional Elections campaign.

Since it was launched in April 2021, this landmark initiative has attracted some 8,800 scholarship applications, which are twice the number of scholarships earmarked for this year. This was attributed to the robust outreaches which saw various ministers of government going into various communities to launch the initiative and kick start registration.

Professor Opadeyi had previously explained that last year, approximately 60 per cent of all the applications were submitted online, with the majority of them, understandably, coming from persons residing in Region Four, which accounted for approximately 3,400 applicants.

Region Three followed with the submission of 1,044 applications; Region Two with 786; Region Six, 674; Region Five, 577; Region 10, 429; Region One, 300; Region Seven, 296; Region Eight, 109; and Region Nine, 110.

Of the submissions received, 80 per cent of the applicants are eligible for the programmes of their choice.

The process requires vetting for eligibility by a team from the Ministry of Education, which is responsible for forwarding the eligible candidates over to the Ministry of the Public Service; a panel of fully qualified persons is then given the responsibility of choosing the successful candidates.

“[The team] will determine, by various factors, who is awarded the scholarships,” Public Service Minister Sonia Parag had informed the Guyana Chronicle. She said in a previous interview that persons are chosen based on their ability to fulfil the criteria for the programmes being offered.

“Information extracted from the application form and motivational statements will be used to determine this,” the Public Service Minister told this newspaper.

Dr Opadeyi had also explained that “there is a rubric of five conditions that must be used before you get a scholarship. One is a Grade Point Average (GPA). So, persons are ranked based on their GPA; then, we rank you based on your income. Of course, if you have a high GPA; more points. Then we rank them based on the region of origin– where they come from.”

Minister Parag had indicated too that the government’s aim is to ensure fair distribution of the scholarships. “It is imperative that there is regional balance in this selection process,” she insisted.

Similar assurances were given by Dr Opadeyi, who highlighted the government’s efforts at levelling the playing field by providing technical support to the regions in need.