According to the President in an address made last year, the annual budgetary allocation for education moved from 14.8 percent in 2014 to 17 percent in 2017, spanning the change of political administrations.  However, even as spending has increased, accountability on spending remains poor. There are red flags on millions of dollars on spending being raised in areas such as textbook procurement, the school feeding programme and the perennial problem area, infrastructure. As in other areas, we believe that meaningfully cleaning up corruption in education will positively impact the affordability of services.  This in addition to properly managed revenue from oil means that public education in Guyana can be completely free to citizens of Guyana over the long term.

Free University Education

We believe that free universal education is an easily attainable goal – it already exists at the nursery, primary and secondary levels.   In five years, Guyanese can have a world-class education, free of cost, through a phased programme:

* We start with complete debt forgiveness for all current UG debtors for debts under one million dollars and a 10 percent payment obligation for debts above that figure.

* A 25% reduction on all current fees and a standing freeze on fees.

*  A needs-based assessment system for the award of complete scholarships to up to 40 percent of first year students.   An additional 20 percent will be added on a biennial basis until the first cohort who will enjoy zero fees.

Persons with disabilities

Persons with disabilities are overwhelming negatively impacted by poor access to education, whether in terms of basic access to education facilities or in the use of technology to support their education.  We will work with organisations like the Guyana Council of Organizations for Persons with Disabilities to ensure that PWBs are afforded full scholarships to programmes in which they qualify. They are also to be given technical assistance where needed to educational material, including audiobooks for example, for the visually impaired.

Affordability for non-Citizens – the more we invest in education infrastructure and programmes, the greater opportunity we get to attract external, paying students without any rise in per student costs.  External students attracted to affordable but internationally certified tertiary education in Guyana (as is already happening with some medical schools) not only add to the potential human resource pool but to the economy as well via rental, entertainment and food expenditure.

Scholarships

The allocation of government scholarships in Guyana and the total cost to the taxpayer remains shrouded in mystery – anecdotal information and investigative journalism paint a picture of scholarships being awarded on a non-competitive basis to the political elite across administrations, including ministers of government and the children of ministers and other government supporters.  Our first priority will be a complete audit of all government scholarship expenditure over the past ten years with a publication of the findings.  We will then create a system based on merit, and the need to allocate scholarships in keeping with the country’s current and future human resource development needs.