–says there will be no budget cuts for the institution, calls for more efficient, better quality of teaching

PEOPLE’S Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday affirmed that former students who had not applied for a student loan, but are still in debt to the University of Guyana (UG) are eligible to benefit from the government’s debt write-off initiative.

This was Dr. Jagdeo’s response to a question on whether a person who has no loan agreement with the institution, but is indebted to it will also be eligible for a write-off.

“Once they owe the University of Guyana, then they are eligible for the write-off, too. You don’t have to have a loan at the bank or to the student agency,” he said while responding to questions posed by the Guyana Chronicle at a news conference.

The delivery of free tertiary education has been a hallmark of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)’s Manifesto.

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 have completed their studies, graduated, and were employed in Guyana for a minimum of three years.

Further, the General Secretary explained that there will be a commitment at a minimum to ensure that resources are delivered to the institution no less than what is being allocated now.

“We would have to look at money coming in from private sources in the past, what was from the public source, the subvention. And we had a $3 billion subvention already to UG per year,” he said.

The General Secretary emphasised that there will be no cutting of the budget for UG or the technical and vocational institutions.

“We also need a management seized with a sense of urgency, and you have to have structures there like the councillors at UG have, to push for better a quality education and better use of the money,” he added.

Dr. Jagdeo affirmed that the government will ensure that UG is provided with all the resources it needs, but would not underfund, or overfund the institution.

He further charged the administration and the Ministry of Education to ramp up efforts to improve education delivery.

“We have to get output for it; more efficiency and better quality tuition for the [people] who go to UG… I am hoping that the Ministry of Education will play a greater role on quality; bringing in people from abroad,” Dr. Jagdeo said.

Last Thursday, during a historic address to the National Assembly, President Dr. Irfaan Ali announced that as of January 2025, all tuition fees at UG will be abolished.

“Starting from the January 2025 semester, tuition fees will be completely abolished at the University of Guyana. This will continue the advancement of our human capital for a more prosperous future for our country, and for all of the young people who will benefit from this initiative and their family.

“This measure will benefit in excess of 11,000 current students immediately, and, of course, all the new entrants in the future,” President Ali said, adding that the initiative would cost the government in excess of $18 billion.

It was also later revealed that tuition fees for all government technical and vocational institutions will also be abolished. These include Guyana industrial training centre, the Carnegie of Home Economics, the Guyana School of Agriculture.