The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government is well on its way to fulfil its promise to make 20,000 online scholarships accessible to citizens within a five-year period, with over 6,000 awarded alone in 2021, some 1,500 more than was promised for that year and the several months from August to December 2020. This was disclosed moments ago by the Public Service Minister, Sonia Parag, during her contribution to the 2022 Budget debates being held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
She noted that the empowerment of women continues to be a priority of the government with some 4,118 women alone benefitting from the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarships.
She informed the House that the GOAL initiative is perhaps one of the best programmes launched by the Irfaan Ali-led regime thus far. The government is now seeking the sum of $1.3B to cater for 2,726 continuing students and the awarded of an estimated 4,500 scholarships that have been earmarked for 2022.
Minister within the Office of the President with Responsibility of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh during his Budget 2022 presentation last Wednesday, noted that GOAL is also being used by educators as an upskilling tool.
Some 100 teachers are enrolled in higher education training via the GOAL programme, and according to Dr Singh, their upskilling will surely serve to improve the learning outcomes of the special education needs (SEN) schools that empower persons living with disabilities.
Importantly, GOAL also offers training programmes for technical work in the oil and gas industry.
