Permanent Forum on People of African Descent Right to education priority for Guyana Govt – Hamilton tells Forum

The right to education provided for in Article 17 of the Draft Declaration is a policy priority for the Government of Guyana.
This point was made by Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton as he addressed delegates at the opening of the Third Session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent in Geneva, Switzerland.

Hamilton told those gathered at the forum that Government is keen in ensuring that this right is respected and promoted, as a result, work will continue to ensure that changing realities do not negatively affect access to and the delivery of the quality of education in Guyana.
On this point, he disclosed that Guyana has already attained universal primary education and aims to attain universal secondary education by 2026.
Further, the administration’s efforts to make tertiary education at the University of Guyana free to all qualified locals is moving apace.
“Our government has invested significant resources to these programmes which will benefit our youthful population and facilitate the closure of the skills gap in our job market. This commitment is shared through a variety of programmes across different sectors aimed at empowering all Guyanese,” The Labour Minister said.
The Labour Minister added, the Guyana Government is investing heavily in programmes for all Guyanese, especially those who did not complete their secondary education.
Some mentioned programmes include the Greater Guyana Initiative (GGI) Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) programme, the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) which aimed to offer 20,000 tertiary level scholarships by 2025, and the Women’s Innovation and Investment Network (WIIN), which was launched in 2022; to date over 8000 women have benefitted from training for self-employment opportunities.
According to Minister Hamilton, all the programmes aforementioned offers a broad range of courses from post-secondary, pre-university foundation courses to undergraduate degrees and Doctoral levels.
He noted that the programmes were conceptualised to develop the local workforce and entrepreneurship in order to promote sustainable economic diversification in Guyana.
“I would like to reiterate the Government of Guyana’s commitment towards its transformative development agenda of leaving “no one behind” with a highly skilled competitive and diverse workforce to meet the global demands of a changing world” Hamilton added.
Education budget
The substantial amount of $135.2 billion was made available in the 2024 National Budget for the advancement of education, highlighting a strong commitment to enhancing the nation’s education landscape.
The funds are earmarked for various projects and initiatives aimed at improving both physical infrastructure and administrative facilities.
This includes the construction of several new schools, dorms, and teachers’ living quarters in Orealla Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), Jawalla Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Monkey Mountain in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), among others.
Construction of hinterland schools
Between Regions One (Barima-Waini), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), there are 239 schools serving 32,603 learners.
However, most of the schools are primary schools, with just 13 being secondary schools: three in Region One, three in Region Seven, three in Region Eight and four in Region Nine.
Though the 13 secondary schools are catering to 7,884 students, there are currently 20,638 pupils in the 161 primary schools.
These statistics were provided by the Ministry of Education (MoE) feasibility studies, which were made public in 2022. This is the same study that prompt government to devise a plan to construct new schools in the hinterland and other remote areas.
Many of the schools are equipped with laboratories, an information technology (IT) lab, main auditorium, modern class rooms, which are equipped with interactive boards and computers, along with a library among other important amenities.
One such facility is Abram Zuil Secondary which is located in Essequibo Region 2 (Pomeroon-Supenaam).
Outside of building new schools, the sum of $3.1 billion was provided to teachers this year in grants to purchase supplies for their classrooms while another $3 billion will be used to purchase textbooks.
Further, $4.9 billion will go towards the national school feeding programme. This will allow children in hinterland communities to get hot meals, while all Grade Six pupils will get breakfast.
Moreover, $4 billion will go towards the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) to accommodate at least 6,000 new online scholarships this year.
Free tertiary education
In a move to fulfill its manifesto promise of free tertiary education, government announced earlier in the year that it will begin to wipe out loans owed by University of Guyana (UG) graduates.
It was disclosed that this initiative is part of the many measures being put in place to make tertiary education at the institution free by 2025.
In 2016, a forensic audit into the operations of the UG Student Loan Agency had revealed that over a 21-year period, successive People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Governments made available to the agency over $9 billion for loans.
The sum of $4.1 billion was allocated in the National Budget to support the University of Guyana (UG) this year. (G1)