THE question of removing tuition fees altogether from the national university, University of Guyana, was raised for some time under the previous David Granger-led APNU+AFC government. The advocacy emerged from a contextual reading of Guyana’s Constitution.

For clarity, the word “university” is mentioned in the Constitution twice. It is the second reference, however, that relates to the issue at hand. “Right to education” is addressed in Article 27 (1) and (2) where it reads: “Every citizen has the right to free education from nursery to university as well as at non-formal places where opportunities are provided for education and training.”

Article 27 (2) reads: “It is the duty of the State to provide education that would include curricula designed to reflect the cultural diversities of Guyana and disciplines that are necessary to prepare students to deal with social issues and to meet the challenges of the modern technological age.”

The national university is nowhere mentioned within the Constitution of Guyana. One, however, can see how folks ran with the “Free UG” idea since at the time the campaign rose to prominence, it was largely the University of Guyana that provided most tertiary education needs in Guyana.

Since the President, Dr Irfaan Ali-led People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government came to office in 2020, there has been a thrust to build the technical and knowledge capacity of Guyanese through vocational training, and also through scholarships from the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL). So far, thousands of Guyanese have received state-sponsored opportunities to study hundreds of programmes from certificate level all the way to Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

Without a doubt, the GOAL programme largely satisfies the spirit of Article 27 of the Constitution. That attainment, however, has not been limited to the more frontal advocacy of removal of tuition fees at the University of Guyana. It could further be cautioned that removing tuition from the university would drastically shift the income model of the university to 100 per cent state-funding, as opposed to the current arrangement of annual subventions through the national budget. Those championing the call for tuition removal should properly consider the modality for achieving this, and the very future of the university if such a step were to be taken.

Added to the existing training and capacity-building opportunities for Guyanese as the country prepares for its future economic development, President Ali announced on Friday at the 16th annual Berbice Expo and Trade Fair that Guyana is working with the authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to launch a programme so that some 150,000 Guyanese can be trained as coders.

“We want to ensure that Guyana can be a zone for data services and data centres and data banks. We are going to pass legislation as it relates to Guyana becoming a major player in data banks in the data industry. This by itself will create tonnes of new employment at the higher level,” President Ali had told the gathering at the Expo during his address. It is regrettable that some advocacies continue to be promulgated even though there are initiatives which, in spirit, satisfy the very requests emanating from those advocacies. It’s a matter of perspective.