Never bite the hand that feeds you – Parag slams WIN MP for criticising GOAL programme that funded his studies

Education Minster, Sonia Parag on Monday called out We Invest in Nationhood MP Dr Gordon Barker for his hypocrisy during the opening of the Budget 2026 debates, pointing out that he criticised the government’s Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) even as he has benefited from free education under the programme.

Delivering his maiden speech on the National Assembly floor at the Budget Debates began, Barker described the government’s GOAL programme, which offers free tertiary level online scholarships to all Guyanese as a potential atrocity. He said that the program is riddled with poor planning, weak oversight and unacceptable uncertainly for thousands of Guyanese students. However, according to Parag, Barker has handsomely benefited from the very programme he now criticises.
“You never ever bite the hand that you feed from,” Parag quipped, pointing to what she described as clear hypocrisy.
“The Honorable member would have earned his qualifications that he stands in this National house so proudly of from the GOAL programme that he is fighting. The Honorable member stood there and talked about the atrocity of this programme, but the Honorable member got his degree from the Jain Deemed-to-be University on the GOAL programme. Shocking. And moved on to a PhD on the GOAL. Extremely shocking.”

Barker introduced himself as the Shadow Minister of Education, seemingly taking over the role from A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) MP, Coretta McDonald. McDonald delivered her speech just after Barker as the three parties on the Opposition benches continue to navigate internal arrangements in the sharing of the opposition’s 29 parliamentary seats.
Parag described Barker and McDonald as “two shadows who gave unimpressive presentations.”
Parag countered Barker’s criticism with facts and statistics about the GOAL programme, reminding that over 54,000 Guyanese had been awarded programmes under the initiative between 2021 – 2025, with some 6000 Guyanese graduating with various degrees and certificates in 2025.
The government established GOAL programme is an online education initiative launched in 2021 as part of Guyana’s broader agenda to expand access to tertiary and skills-based learning. It partners with local and international universities and institutions to offer a wide range of programmes, including certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s, postgraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees to Guyanese learners through flexible, online delivery. The programme aims to make quality education accessible to citizens across the country. To date, the programme has far exceeded its original target of 20,000 scholarships.
In his inaugural address Barker also spoke about the National School Feeding Programme, the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), the recently opened YASS Special Needs School, infrastructure in the public schools.
McDonald later took the floor and picked up the mantle where Barker left off, criticising the $183 billion education budget and what percentage it accounts for in the overall National Budget.
Taking the floor to defend the works, policies and initiatives of the government for the past 5 years and the next coming five years, Parag addressed individual claims as she endorsed the 2026 Budget.
“A budget crafted for the ppl written by the ppl and grounded firmly in reality hopes and aspirations of the guyanese people. Priority was always placed on the education sector by the PPPC government,” Parag noted.
To McDonald, Parag reminded her of statements she made in 2018, when at the time in her position as General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), she was at loggerheads with the then government of the APNU and its coalition partner the Alliance for Change (AFC), and noted that “life for teachers under the PPPC is always better”.
Parag pointed to the billions spent by the government year on year to continue the building out of infrastructure, the University of Guyana (UG) student loan write off programme, and the Because We Care cash grant given to parents for each child in school.