Gov’t engaging private schools to help support tertiary learning

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Friday night said the University of Guyana (UG) has received more than 20,000 applications for the upcoming academic year.

With UG filled, he highlighted, the government will now engage private tertiary institutions on how students can be supported.

The surge, he said, comes after the government decided to make university education free.

However, the university is unable to accommodate all the applicants.

To address the situation, President Dr. Irfaan Ali announced that the government will partner with every private tertiary institution in the country to ensure that no aspiring student is left behind.

“We have taken a decision that every single private university, all of the universities, whether it’s the new medical school, the international university, we are going to engage, so that no child who wants a university education will be left without education because of space,” President Ali said at a public meeting held at Industry.

President Ali first announced in 2024 that university education would become free and confirmed that from January 2025, no student attending UG will pay tuition fees.

The initiative was expected to benefit approximately 11,000 current students and cost the government an estimated $8 billion, annually.

In addition to eliminating tuition fees, the administration has launched a US$ student loan write-off programme targeting $11 billion in outstanding loans held by over 13,000 students.

The government has also made significant investments in training more than 82,000 individuals including 39,000 through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL).