Gov’t working on sourcing 20,000 scholarships
-Ministry working with several top universities
─Coursera deadlines extended to provide more opportunities
Minister of Education, Hon. Priya Manickchand says plans to secure 20,000 online scholarships are moving apace even as the Government works to ensure that more education opportunities are made available locally.
The Minister made this statement at an event held at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development, where Texila American University announced that it will now recognise courses completed via the online learning platform Coursera.
“We are working with several universities including the Indira Gandhi University, the University of the West Indies, the University of Guyana to see how we can build out a programme that will offer at least 20,000 online opportunities…that will be a scholarship programme for persons who are eligible.”
Some 51,000 Guyanese are registered on Coursera, with 8,054 completing 32,912 courses from Ivy League and other recognised universities across the world.
“This ties in very neatly with the PPP/C’s manifesto promise that we were going to provide online learning opportunities at least in the number of 20,000…If we were to count this, we’ve already had 32,00o certificates in an online learning environment…that manifesto promise is being taken seriously,” she stated.
Therefore, she added, the commitment made on page 35 of the manifesto is likely to “be fulfilled long before the first five years is up.”
Guyana’s performance on Coursera has also been recognised by Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jeff Maggioncalda and Senior Adviser for Global Government Partnership, Mr. Chad Pasha.
The courses provide opportunities for Guyanese to advance their academic achievements, despite the pandemic, in a world where technology is now leading the education sector. The workforce is also benefitting from the expansion of human resource skills, which translates to greater competency and overall self-development while on the job.
Guyana is also now benefiting from another registration deadline extension from December 14 to December 31, 2020. Students now also have until March 31, 2021 to complete their courses as opposed to February 14, 2021.
The Education Ministry is also liaising with the Coursera officials to tailor online programmes to match career preferences.
The opportunity for online learning for Guyanese is a partnership between the Ministry, the Commonwealth of Learning and Coursera.