Former UG Vice-Chancellor to head Guyana Online Academy of Learning

The former University of Guyana Vice-Chancellor and University of West Indies Professor, Dr. Jaccob Opadeyi, is expected to head the Guyana Online Learning Academy (GOAL), the Education Ministry announced Tuesday.

The academy is also expected to be housed at the Ogle Estate, East Coast Demerara.

Dr. Opadeyi served as Vice-Chancellor and Principal, University of Guyana from 2013-2016 and also headed the Department of Geomatics Engineering and Land Management during the period of 1995-1999 and 2008-2011.

He also served as Deputy Dean for Enterprise Development and Outreach at the Faculty of Engineering UWI (2011-2013) and was the Director of Office of Research Development and Knowledge Transfer (2012-2013, UWI; and Technical Advisor at UWI’s Disaster Risk Reduction Centre (DRRC).

As preparation continues for GOAL’s launch, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand on Tuesday conducted a tour of the location and engaged with Dr Opadeyi and other staff members, outlining the critical role they will play to facilitate the large scale capacity development of Guyanese.

The Education Minister engaged Dr. Opadeyi and the staff of GOAL on the important role they are playing to facilitate the capacity development of Guyanese on a national scale.

According to the Education Ministry, the 20,000 scholarships will be offered over five years with 4,500 of those scholarships to be awarded this year, as promised.

Guyanese can apply to pursue any of the over 80 programmes being offered through GOAL from five internationally acclaimed universities, namely; these are the University of the West Indies Open Campus, the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC), the University of Applied Sciences (IUBH), the Indira Gandi National Open University (IGNOU) and the JAIN “Deemed To Be” University.

Programmes will be offered from the Certificate level up to the PhD level and the intended timeline for completing those programmes range from two months to three years.

Application forms are now available on the Ministry of Education’s website at www.education.gov.gy.

The GOAL website will be launched this week to facilitate the submission of digital applications by interested persons.

This initiative is the Government of Guyana’s way of providing opportunities to Guyanese for training, academic growth and lifelong learning. It is expected that over time, more Universities will come on board to provide additional programs in various areas to Guyanese.