20,000 scholarships target achieved 2 years ahead of PPP manifesto promise

The Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarship programme has already exceeded its 20,000 target in less than three years, some two years ahead of its manifesto promise.
President Dr Irfaan Ali made this announcement on Thursday, while speaking to reporters at an event, noting the significant progress made thus far in fulfilling the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C) campaign manifesto.

“In less than three years, the GOAL scholarship programme has surpassed its 20,000 scholarships and that was our commitment in five years,” Ali said.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand explained that so far, some 21,000 scholarships have been issued in an initiative that will continue to expand.
“We’re not stopping here. It has really afforded persons who couldn’t imagine getting a chance to go to university and then a foreign university [with the opportunity] to do their degrees and PhDs and Master’s. It’s changing lives right before us,” Manickchand said.
“A lot of why this is useful is that people continue working. So, all of the teachers that are under this programme – we have more than 2000 on GOAL scholarships doing different things – are still in classrooms so as they learn, they’re transferring that knowledge to a large number of students every day,” Manickchand said.
Manickchand explained that the types of scholarships offered through the programme have evolved over the years to meet the needs of the country.
“When we first started [the programme], the first year, it was very traditional – the kinds of topics and areas. But we have specifically searched for what might be the needs of the country in tourism, in counselling, in enhancing teachers,” Manickchand said.
“We’re teaching teachers to teach reading with the University of West Indies (UWI). So, we’ve really tried not to do just traditional accounts and management and so on,” Manickchand said.

Since its inception in 2021, the GOAL scholarship programme has been providing Guyanese countrywide with the opportunity to increase their skills, knowledge and qualifications to improve their economic and self-development.
Last year, the Government distributed 167 GOAL scholarships in Region One (Barima-Waini); 558 in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); 1429 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); 3090 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and 635 in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), while 894 persons benefitted in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), 191 in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), 46 in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), and 143 and 527 in Regions Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), respectively.
This year, $1.8 million was allocated in the 2023 National Budget towards advancing the programme.
Offered by a number of international institutions, the GOAL programme includes courses on Marketing, Journalism, Industrial Safety, Animation and VFX, Cybersecurity and Data Science.