EVERY September, Guyana observes Education Month alongside Amerindian Heritage Month, a pairing that reflects how deeply learning and culture are woven together here.
This year, the timing feels especially fitting. Measured against where the sector stood five years ago, the honest verdict is that Guyana’s education system has been transformed, not merely funded.
Start with the number that matters most: are children actually learning more? Ministry of Education figures show that in 2020, barely 39 per cent of students passed the national Mathematics assessment; by the most recent results, that figure had climbed past 55 per cent, while the performance in English rose from around 61 per cent to nearly 70 per cent.
Posting gains like that after a pandemic that set schooling back almost everywhere else in the world is no small feat, and it suggests classroom-level policy, not just political speeches, has been doing real work.
Access has widened just as impressively. The GOAL scholarship programme set out in 2021 to award 20,000 scholarships within five years. Officials confirm it blew past that target years early, with close to 55,000 Guyanese awarded one so far, and the programme is now uncapped so every qualified applicant can receive support.
The new Guyana Digital School drew more than 22,000 students to free, curriculum-aligned secondary lessons in its very first month online, closing gaps between coastal and hinterland classrooms. Since 2020, the government has also built 66 new nursery schools, 34 primary schools and 33 secondary schools, while rehabilitating 19 student dormitories that let hinterland children live closer to school. Guyana has already reached universal access to primary education, with universal secondary access expected this year.
None of this happened by accident. Finance Minister Ashni Singh’s 2026 budget shows the national budget has grown roughly fourfold since 2021, and education has grown with it, drawing $183.6 billion this year alone, including $24.3 billion for school construction, expanded technical and vocational training, free tuition, and a 55,000 grant per child last year is now $85,000, thanks to a higher cash grant and a new transportation allowance.
None of this means the work is done. Pass rates still sitting in the 50s and 60s mean too many students remain behind and sustaining this pace once oil-driven revenue growth slows will be the real test of commitment. But five years of climbing scores, expanding scholarships, and hinterland schools being built, make for a rare story among small developing nations: steady, measurable progress rather than mere promises. That is genuinely worth marking this Education Month.
