THE Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) 2022 scholarship programme has extended its March 05, 2022 deadline to 23:45hours on March 13, 2022.

With on overwhelmingly large number of persons applying to the programme, which opened on January 17, GOAL had initially extended its February 19, 2022, application deadline to March 05, 2022, prior to the new deadline.

According to GOAL, as at February 20, 2022, some 7,000 prospective students had already applied for the over 187 programmes, a number which continued to see an upward trajectory over the weeks that followed.

On Saturday, Sonia Parag, Minister of Public Service, journeyed to the Cinderella County of Essequibo, Region Two (Pomeroon – Supernaam) where she met with dozens of potential GOAL applicants to provide guidance and give clarity on matters relating to the government’s landmark 20,000 online scholarships initiative.

Minister Parag and her team also facilitated several on-the-spot registrations of persons eager to enroll into the GOAL 2022 scholarship programme from the communities of Charity, Anna Regina and Huis’t Dieren in Region Two.

In the government’s milestone $552.9 billion budget for this year, a sum of $1.3 billion was approved for GOAL.

This initiative paves the way for Guyanese learners to have access to several internationally recognised institutions, such as the University of the West Indies Open Campus, the University of the Southern Caribbean, the University of Applied Sciences in Germany, as well as the Indira Gandhi National Open University, the JAIN University, and the Sherlock Institute of India.

At no cost to them, Guyanese applicants had the opportunity to choose from over 104 available programmes. As part of the GOAL platform, 20,000 online scholarships will be awarded over the next five years, while another 4,500 students are expected to benefit from online scholarships in 2022.

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 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.

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