APNU to tackle gov’t on Coursera’s contract over unsuitable public servants upskilling courses

Last Updated on Saturday, 15 November 2025, 11:27 by Writer

The opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on Friday raised several wide-ranging concerns about the Guyana government’s agreement with Coursera to provide upskilling courses for public servants which would be used to determine promotions.

APNU’s member of parliament (MP) Ganesh Mahipaul said a scheduled meeting of the 12 APNU MPs would decide whether to tackle the issue by a motion, several questions or direct engagements with a government ministry “to ascertain more and to put our position out there clearer to the respective ministries.”

If the Guyana government seeks parliamentary approval for supplementary funding for Coursera, he vowed that APNU would “drill those requests with questions to get to the bottom and to get answers” about those programmes.

APNU earlier on Friday said in a statement that the ruling PPP had not disclosed the cost, procurement method, expected number of beneficiaries, criteria for participation, evaluation framework or the data-protection arrangements for public servants whose personal information will be processed on a foreign platform.

Minister of Public Service and Government Efficiency Zulfikar Ally did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

That opposition party also said that no explanation had been offered on how the Coursera programme related to the University of Guyana, Guyana Online Academy (GOAL) scholarships, Digital School, or any of the other isolated training initiatives now scattered across ministries. “Instead, another standalone programme has been added to an already disjointed landscape,” APNU added.

APNU’s parliamentary leader Dr Terrence Campbell said his party’s concerns were hinged to “value for money” to develop Guyana’s human capacity.

Shadow education minister, Coretta McDonald on Friday said Coursera’s courses were “wholly inadequate for cultivating the academic, ethical, cultural, administrative and ministry-specific identity, capacity and capability required of the Guyanese public servants.”

She said Coursera could not replace the Bertram Collins College of The Public Service, which was opened in 2016 by the APNU+Alliance For Change administration and closed down in February 2021 when the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration returned to power. “To equate Coursera with a national college of public service is to confuse exposure with education, information with formation, and certificates with character and credibility,” she added.

Ms Mc Donald said the Bertram Collins College was a national institution with a constitutional and cultural purpose to develop professional civil servants who understand and embody the ethos of the Guyanese state. Coursera is a private, commercial platform that would not prepare public officers for local governance, national integrity, or constitutional responsibility.

She challenged the PPPC-led administration to reopen the Bertram Collins College or an even better institution. “If the PPP/C is serious about governance, meritocracy, and integrity, then it must restore or re-establish a national institution of equal or greater potency, one that reaffirms the values of duty, discipline, and patriotism that Coursera was never designed to deliver,” she added.