Free tertiary education: “Laidback” culture among UG students must change – President Ali

…says there is value in working and studying

The culture among university-level students to not join the workforce must change, President Dr Irfaan Ali has asserted.
This is especially important as the government moves towards providing free tertiary education by 2025, he added.
The Head of State was at the time speaking during the Local Content Summit which opened on Tuesday at the Pegasus Suites, Georgetown.
“There is a lot of value (to working and studying),” President Ali expressed as he lamented the culture among local students.
“Here in Guyana, we somehow believe it is demeaning (to work and study),” the president pointed out.
“And I want us to change that before we go to free university education…”.
The existing posture, he argued, can create an environment where students become too “laidback”.
“Because in the developed society, you have to earn whilst you’re at university because you have bills to pay. But it’s not only about earning, it’s the experience, it is adding to your theoretical knowledge…and it builds that experience that is necessary to transition from the world of education into the world of work.”
Moreover, pointing to the labour shortage, he contended that “we don’t see enough of our students in the labour market”, adding that this is detrimental to the rapid rate of development of the local economy.
“For us to grow at the rate we have to grow, we have to deploy every single labour that is available,” the president said.
The government has already announced plans to waiver student loans as it moves towards free education at the University of Guyana by 2025, in a phased manner. This phased approached have started with students who have pre-existing loans.
President Dr Irfaan Ali earlier this year had said that, “we’ve said already we have to move to free university education…it’s going to be an approach that commences the implementation of free education. As you know there are persons who are already on the register, paying loans. So, I think that segment of the student population will have to be addressed first. And then we phase ourselves in.”

Already effective
Meanwhile, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at one of the weekly press conferences earlier this year had indicated that the promise is already effective.
As he addressed the manifesto promise of ensuring free university education, Jagdeo explained that students who took out loans and are yet to repay such within the timeframe of the Government’s term in office would be given a waiver. Retroactively, they will also benefit from free tertiary education as a result of this.
He further considered, “There are some people who may be paying who may be disadvantaged. But for those who have not paid, [we] have effectively given them the free education, because they’re not going to pay the loans. It has a retroactive application.”
Jagdeo added that this route was taken, calculating that by the latter part of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s first term, the cash injection into the University could be made, having dealt with people who acquired loans.
In 2016, a forensic audit into the operations of the UG Student Loan Agency had revealed that over a 21-year period, successive PPP/C Governments made available to the agency over $9 billion for loans.
During the period 1994 to May 2015, the Government of Guyana approved $9,489,453,973 through the National Budget or US$45.5 million (using the current rate of exchange of G$210 to US$1), the 77-page audit report, which was made public by the Finance Ministry, stated.
The report stated that during the period April 2011 to December 2014, $1.8 billion was received through a process whereby the Agency’s head was informed by the Budget Department that funds had been approved to be released to the Agency.