–mechanism being explored to assist students with loans at commercial banks, Vice-President Jagdeo says

VICE-PRESIDENT Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has revealed that some $18 billion could be expended, from the 2024 fiscal package, to write off the loans of University of Guyana (UG) students.

At his weekly news conference on Thursday, Jagdeo said: “We are also writing off, potentially, $18 billion in past loans, and that’s all in this year’s budget. For those who took loans in the earlier period, they don’t have to pay back their loans. So this is a major policy.”

Back in December 2023, President Dr. Irfaan Ali had announced that a phased programme will be implemented to achieve free tertiary education at the country’s premier institution.

The Head of State had disclosed then that persons who currently have loans at the university will be the first group of the student population the phased approach will target.

Meanwhile, further delving into the government’s approach, Vice-President Jagdeo explained that the government will also have to establish a mechanism to assist those students who would have already paid their dues to the university, but are currently repaying loans to commercial banks.

“We have to come up with a policy to try to help those people, too; we have not done so as yet, but I have openly acknowledged that it is a problem for those people,” he said.

The Vice-President further debunked talks that the Guyana Online Learning Academy (GOAL), an Online scholarship programme introduced by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government, is deemphasising the University of Guyana, following the announcement of the budgetary allocations for both intuitions.

On Monday, Senior Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, in his presentation to the National Assembly, disclosed that $4.1 billion was budgetted for UG’s subvention, while $4 billion will be allocated to the GOAL programme.

Dr. Jagdeo noted that the government is creating a network of training institutions. He explained further that the GOAL programme trains more people faster, given its accessibility of having an Online setup when compared to the 3,000 students who pursue studies at UG.

Additionally, with the current labour shortage, more training opportunities are needed.

“We need to train our people urgently now; the scale of the needs are great, and, therefore, we have to explore all means of training our people. That is how we approach education in this country,” Jagdeo said.