Online university education in agri science, engineering for Essequibo Coast residents

As part of efforts to build local capacity, the Guyana Government will soon be rolling out online university education, for citizens in Essequibo, in a number of areas that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of the country as it undergoes unprecedented development.
Speaking at the opening of the Deed and Commercial Registries Authority Building at Suddie in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) on Wednesday, President Dr Irfaan Ali said his government is making the investments necessary to ensure that every Guyanese gets the opportunity to further their studies.
He noted that the Education Ministry has already been directed to work on these programmes that will be facilitated through the Guyana Digital School and are likely to come on stream later this year.
“Within the next eight months or before, [we will] operationalise university education here in Guyana through the Guyana Digital School, so that our young people can have access right here in Essequibo to degrees and diplomas,” the Head of State noted.
Among the areas identified for these degree and diploma programmes are: pharmacy, tourism and hospitality, agriculture science, dentistry, and civil, electrical and mechanical engineering.
“Those are areas we have identified that within nine months – whether we have to build a lab facility [or] we will build an app facility –…your children [will] have these degrees and diplomas specifically identified based on the needs of our country in the immediate future,” the Guyanese leader declared.
Already, based on directions from the president, the health ministry has rolled out similar training programmes in Region Two. The Registered Nursing programme currently has about 200 students enrolled, while the Nursing Assistant programme has about 100 students.
During his remarks at Wednesday’s event, the Head of State also reflected on the state of the education system in Essequibo almost five years ago, when the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) was in opposition.
“[There has been] growth in attendance and enrollment rate in the school system here in Essequibo, from 9,500 to almost 14,000. But there’s a bigger story. When we came here… in 2017 and 2018, there are many rice millers and farmers here …what was on the minds of parents? You recall? It was whether we could keep all two children in school or only one? That was a conversation. That was a conversation we had when we came to Essequibo,” Ali stated.
He went onto recall a specific story with a child who, after hearing her parents fighting about whether to use the money, they had to cloth her and send her to school or to buy food for the house, offered to give up her education. That child’s teacher had sought support from the PPP, though in opposition, to help her continue her schooling.
“That story has never left me, and every single day of my life here as President, as a silent commitment to children like those, we have to find them. We have to nurture them. We have to give every single child that opportunity their parents may never have. And how do we do that? We do that by investments. We do that by commitment, by courage, by determination,” President Ali asserted.
Since returning to office in 2020, the PPP/C Government has spent close to $100 billion in Region Two, across a number of areas, including education.