Greater accessibility, quality of education with new Guyana Coursera platform

Guyanese will now have greater access to world-class, free education following the launch of the Guyana Coursera platform.

Through this initiative, the Coursera platform has partnered with several ministries to offer courses in over 6,000 disciplines.

Some 1,000 individuals are already set to undergo the Registered Nurse’s programme through Coursera, with another 800 registered for the Nursing Assistant Programme.

The programme was officially launched on Friday at the National Stadium on the East Bank Demerara.

In his feature remarks, President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali noted that human development and transformation remain at the centre of the country’s development, and this programme is well aligned with that philosophy.

Coursera is one of the world’s leading online learning platforms, with over 142 million registered learners, based on its December 2023 statistics.

The portal also boasts partnerships with over 325 top Universities and institutions, including Yale University and John Hopkins.

With these credentials, the president said that the platform is advancing the government’s vision of providing quality accessibility in the education sector.

He challenged the platform’s executives to utilise artificial intelligence and virtual experiences to boost the delivery of education, expanding the range of programmes offered to include a wider cross-section of the country.

“We can use your platform to design the first specialised degree and postgraduate degree programme in biodiversity studies in our forests, attaching that programme to a leading university, and launching it as a global product. That is the challenge we must now put before ourselves,” the president urged.

The head of state chronicled a step-by-step improvement plan for the sector, to position the country as a hub for world-class online education.

“We don’t see this as the end-all. We are now looking to position Guyana as the main hub for Latin America and the Caribbean for Coursera and for what you have to offer in this region. To do this, we have to work on building a diversified platform that would cater for all languages and all requirements of the region,” President Ali explained.

With this robust agenda, the president said that the government is changing lives, presenting beacons of hope to countless Guyanese who seek opportunities to improve their lives.

“Persons who are home, never having the opportunity to study… now, under the GOAL programme and this programme, for the first time, are graduating by the hundreds across our country. They now have that opportunity to smile with dignity because they believe in themselves, and they have achieved by believing in themselves, and the system built a platform that allowed them to believe in themselves, and allowed them to attain their dream. That is a system that is meeting the requirements of the people,” the Guyanese leader declared.

Meanwhile, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and Public Service, Dr Ashni Singh, recalled that the head of state’s perseverance in maintaining the delivery of education during the COVID-19 pandemic is what paved the way for this tremendous development.

Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues, US Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole Theriot, and Chief Executive Officer of Coursera Inc., Jeff Maggioncalda, were also present at the ceremony.