While the Guyana Government has invested millions of dollars in the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) Programme in the past three years, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton said today that those funds could have been used to develop Guyana’s own premier University.
Norton made these and other claims during the hosting of a special press conference today.
He was asked specifically by Guyana Standard whether he believes the funds allocated to the programme should be instead offered to the University of Guyana for persons to pursue degrees there. In response, Norton explained that while he welcomes the need for the initiative, there must be an impact assessment.
“GOAL doesn’t come over to me as satisfying the needs of the people of Guyana. And if it does, it is minimal. We need an assessment of what GOAL has achieved and also what was not achieved. Whether there is GOAL or not, we should be investing in UG because it is our premier institution and there is also the development of human resources. This is key for the advancement of Guyana,” Norton said.
Norton further noted that the university’s landscape must also change, highlighting that there must also be more opportunities for persons to pursue further Masters and Doctoral Studies. He said this will improve the academic capabilities of UG. He however pointed to the need for the development of the Institute of Applied Science Technology.
“It should be given the kind of resources so that it can become involved in research that can lead to other developments… In this country, we have a lot of clay, maybe we can set up a tile factory and clay bricks. There are a number of things we can do if these institutions are given the right amount of funding to do research,” Norton said.
GOAL was originally introduced in 2021, with a total of 6,000 online scholarships made available. During the discussion of the budget estimates this year, Public Service Minister Sonia Parag noted that the $1.8 million is a component of the larger expenditure allocated for the provision of training, including government scholarships.
