Mc Donald, Manickchand trade words about UG funding

Last Updated on Monday, 22 January 2024, 23:19 by Denis Chabrol

The opposition coalition of A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) on Monday decried the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC)-led administration’s  refusal to fund the University of Guyana (UG) adequately.

During day one of debate on the 2024 National Budget, Education Minister Priya Manickchand sought to assure Guyanese that the publicly-funded tertiary institution would continue to receive monies from the National Treasury. “It is now our University of Guyana and we will fund it and continue to fund it and it’s very precious to us,” she told the House.

Clearly in response to the opposition stating that the PPPC administration had scrapped free university education in 1994, the Education Minister said when her party lost the 2015 elections, UG tuition fees had been GY$160,000 per academic year but the APNU+AFC administration hiked it in 2016 by more than GY$70,000.

Ms Manickchand said government has this year “given” UG a GY$1 billion more than last year. The total allocation is GY$4.1 billion which UG sources said would cover only 60 percent of salaries which costs GY$6.1 billion annually. Sources said the salary bill is usually funded by tuition fees and research projects.

With UG’s  2024 budget estimated at GY$10 billion, the remaining GY$3 to GY$4 billion is needed to fund other operational expenses such as electricity, water, security, health and sanitation, laboratory materials including reagents, medical supplies , building maintenance, web and online services, research, licensing and technical fees.

APNU+AFC parliamentarian, Coretta Mc Donald criticised government’s treatment of UG, saying that the GY$4.1 billion allocated to that institution meant that the the institution was “under attack.” Citing recent remarks about UG by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, she described the budgeted amount as a “travesty and unpatriotic move”  when compared to GY$4 billion for the three-year old Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) that provides free tuition for Guyanese to study Online at universities in the United Kingdom, India and elsewhere. “Mr Speaker, the PPP doesn’t want the University of Guyana to grow because they are fearful that it poses a threat to their control-freakism. Over the years, the university has emerged as an important institution that indirectly checks the government in its excesses,” said Ms Mc Donald who was up to recently APNU+AFC Shadow Minister of Education.

She contended that UG creates an opportunity for people to further their education and think critically, something the incumbent administration opposes.  “This is the fear of the People’s Progressive Party that they cannot control the university and what they cannot control, they do not fund,” said the now Shadow Labour Minister.

Ms Mc Donald recommended that, in line with government’s push for Online education, the emphasis should be on strengthening UG to offer its academic programmes Online. She said it was “unacceptable” that UG’s financing of GY$4.1 billion was almost on par with the GY$4 billion for the politically-driven GOAL.

UG sources said the GY$4.1 billion is “a real blow” as it does not include money for three accreditation exercises.

The latest UG fact sheet states that the institution has 11,000 students and 1,300 faculty and staff.