Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall has expressed dismay with the public’s response to the government’s online scholarships programme.
“I am not satisfied with the response which this programme has yielded thus far. I believe that we are a far more intelligent people; we are a people who appreciate the importance of an education; we place premium value on academic qualifications; and therefore, I cannot understand why we’re not getting the type of response that I anticipated,” Nandlall said last evening during his programme, “Issues in the News”.
Nandlall said that the initiative is the “greatest scholarship programme unfolding in the Caribbean since Independence” and yet, persons are not taking full advantage of the initiative.
The AG said that persons are being discouraged by politicians.
“We can only take the horse to the well, we cannot force the horse to drink the water. This programme is about education. People in America have to do two, three jobs and still they go to school and they have to pay for that [but] your government is paying for you to get an education. People all over the world are dying for this opportunity and you are not taking it up, and you are being misled by politicians.”
He added, “Imagine a political leader telling his constituents or her constituents that they should not take an education; that they should not partake in an education programme that is being offered by the government. Now, you are not a leader. Any person who does that is an enemy to his or her own people. They cannot fall in the category of leaders. You want to keep your people in a perpetual state of ignorance so that you can continue to exploit them. This has nothing to do with politics. Why would you want to go around in the villages and into the communities to pursue your narrow political ends by telling the people they should not participate in this programme?”
The Government of Guyana is offering 20,000 online scholarships in both technical and academic fields.
