The Government of Guyana (GoG) will be heading to the National Assembly soon to seek $11 billion in supplementary funds to enhance educational infrastructures across the country.
This upgrade to Guyana’s educational facilities was revealed by President Dr. Irfaan Ali, during his featured address, last Thursday at the commissioning of the state-of-the-art $585 million Abram Zuil Secondary School in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).
The president stated that notwithstanding the tremendous resources that the government already allocated in the 2023 budget for the education system; Cabinet has decided that $11 billion in supplementary funding is needed to start the country wide retrofitting and renovation of existing educational facilities.
“So you will see that in our next supplementary provision, we are going to have a chunk of these resources ready to support this investment of $11 billion across the country,” he said.
President Ali explained that before the decision was made, Cabinet examined the condition survey that was conducted on all educational facilities countrywide, including dormitories, hostels, teachers’ quarters, and schools (nursery, primary and secondary).
“And we look at the estimates and the costing to bring all of these facilities throughout Guyana in every single region to a minimum standard, and that retrofitting, maintenance and renovation budget would be around $11billion. This is for education alone,” President Ali said.
He said too, “I want to emphasize, including the teachers quarters because we promise that as part of the holistic package for teachers wherever they are accommodated, we want to give them proper accommodation, one that is decent especially those who are serving us in the hinterland communities.”
The president highlighted that the investment will be a crucial component of a comprehensive, multi-year agenda and programme for education.
The announcement by President Ali to upgrade educational facilities comes just over a month after 20 children died as a result of a fire at the Mahdia Secondary School female dormitory in Region Eight. According to reports, the children were locked in the dormitory, which was heavily grilled. While the fire was maliciously started, it was revealed that the children did not have any fire prevention training nor was the building equipped with a fire extinguisher.
