Gov’t surpasses 20,000 online scholarships in just under two years

– 15,366 women awarded scholarships since its rollout – Min Parag

The Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarship programme has awarded scholarships to 15k,442 women from the ten administrative regions since its rollout in 2021 by the Ministries of Public Service and Education.

The programme is being implemented to fulfilling 20,000 online scholarships over five years and highlights the government’s commitment to upskilling Guyanese in tertiary education, especially women and youths in rural and hinterland areas

Former Public Service Minister Sonia Parag, who is now the new Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, provided these statistics during the ministry’s year-end press conference on Friday.

She highlighted that the programme has performed exceptionally well, with 21,442 scholarships awarded to Guyanese in the ten administrative regions in less than two years – signalling a manifesto promise being delivered.

“That programme was a manifesto promise based on the fact that we believe we needed to bridge the gap across the country for offering persons a tertiary education, an opportunity to have a tertiary education,” the minister recalled.

Minister Parag attributed the success of the programme to the government’s robust outreach efforts, which allowed the programme to reach every corner of Guyana, providing those in far-flung communities with the opportunity.

Also, the government strategically made all the scholarships courses online, allowing employed persons to conveniently pursue a tertiary education.

“We didn’t just throw something there … it was thought out strategically. Online scholarship, why? Because we knew that so many people are working. So many people cannot come from the hinterland to Georgetown. They cannot come from a rural area to Georgetown … We made all the scholarships online, so that you will have the convenience of doing so and being able to accomplish a degree …,” she underscored. 

Since 2021, 246 scholarships were awarded to persons in Region One, 885 in Region Two, 1111 in Region Three, 2,988 in Region Four, 431 in Region Five, 877 in Region Six, 284 in Region Seven, 381 in Region Eight, 162 in Region Nine while 349 scholarships were awarded to persons in Region 10.

Already, over 3,000 persons have completed their education through the GOAL programme.