President David Granger, this morning, attended the Glory Light Tabernacle’s Sunrise Prayer Breakfast in the village of Plaisance, where he outlined government’s plan to restore free education.
Article 27 of the Constitution of Guyana says every citizen has the right to free education from nursery to university as well as at non-formal places where opportunities are provided for education and training.
Despite this, students who attend the University of Guyana (UG) are required to pay tuition fees. This evidently goes against the constitution, and is something that student bodies and other organisations have been calling on the both the former and current administration to address.
The President said, “Emancipation means independence…Emancipation means education,” while noting that it was education that unlocked opportunities which freed Africans from their cycle of inter-generational poverty.
“I want us to go back to the time where every village had a school,” the Head of State said.
He said education today is as important as it was in the past and iterated his commitment to every child having access to education.
“Let us not see the church, and school in isolation,” the President said, while pointing to the ‘Decade of development for all’ from 2020 to 2029.
“We in Guyana declare a decade for the development of all,” the President said, adding that the decade must protect every citizen’s right and entitlement to education.
The Head of State said, “I have plans for the profits which will come from oil and gas. It is not going to enrich a few, it is going to educate many. Every child must be in school. Every village must have a school. This decade of development means that in every single village, every child must have access to go to school…I want this church, Glory Light Tabernacle to ensure there are no more street children.”
The President said, too, that in keeping with the Constitution and decade of development for all, free education shall be restored.
