–Jagdeo says, urges students to capitalise on this opportunity

SOME $5 billion in student debt owed to the University of Guyana (UG) could be written off by the end of this year, as the government pushes to make tertiary education free, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo has said.
During his weekly news conference at Freedom House on Thursday, the PPP General Secretary told reporters that for the year so far, the PPP/C administration has successfully written off $203.7 million in student loans.
This, he said, has benefitted approximately 346 students, noting: “It is anticipated that another 2,900 would also get their debts written off.”

Jagdeo went on to say that this would be at the cost of just about $5 billion. There is about $18 billion of debt owed by students for the past 20 years to UG.
“The only condition for you to be eligible for this write off is being here in Guyana… I want to urge the students who have outstanding debts to just apply for the write off, so that we can proceed with doing so,” the PPP General Secretary said.

Back in May, the government had announced Phase One of its plan to erase loans of UG students. The government had said it would write off all loans owed by Guyanese who can demonstrate that they completed their studies, graduated, and were employed in Guyana for a minimum of three years.
“The only criteria for you to be eligible is for you to be in Guyana; once you are here in Guyana and contributing to national development. That does not mean working in the public sector; you could be working anywhere, you will be eligible,” Jagdeo said Thursday.
He further urged Guyanese to enhance their capabilities by utilising the training and scholarship programmes being made available by the government.

“You are aware of the scholarships offered to people; anyone who wants to study can apply through the [Guyana Online Academy of Learning] GOAL programme; there is no age restriction. And once you get into the programme, the government will pay for the entire scholarship,” Jagdeo said.
Opportunities, he noted, are also available at the Ministry of Human Services and the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

“If you are not eligible to start a degree programme or a technical programme, there is a remedial programme that was also found, so that people can go through the remedial programme and then get themselves qualified to access the higher education. There are also opportunities through Human Services, [specifically] for women. There are training programmes there, and also through BIT,” Jagdeo related, noting that persons need to utilise those opportunities fully.