UG under attack – McDonald
welcomed, the opposition remains concerned over this approach and added that the government’s push to online education should be coupled with the development of the university.
She opined that the two objectives can be combined. “We could develop UG and at the same time, move to online learning.
It is unacceptable that the university’s funding is now equal to an academy of learning that is under direct political direction.”
She added that this would have been the perfect opportunity to fund the university and make it into a world-class institution, claiming that the Opposition’s research has uncovered major issues with the GOAL programme.
However, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand during her presentation in response to McDonald stressed that it is the government’s responsibility to facilitate any citizen who would want to pursue an education in the best way they can.
She noted that it was the PPP/C’s Cheddi Jagan who started the University of Guyana which the then PNC had labeled “Jagan’s night school.”
However, Manickchand stressed, “It is our University of Guyana and we will fund it and continue to fund it… It is very precious to us; it is very precious to us.”
She then pointed out that it was the APNU+AFC who raised the tuition fees resulting in university students begging for relief with all of their pleas being ignored by the then administration.
Meanwhile, Manickchand also added that it was important to understand the difference between GOAL and the Coursera programmes being offered both of which benefit learners differently.
“Coursera is different from GOAL, GOAL is different from the University of Guyana, it is important that we understand what they are. Coursera is a series of short courses offered to the people to upskill or reskill through various, hundreds of universities, renowned universities like Harvard and MIT and Princeton and Oxford and Cambridge those are the Coursera courses.”
She added, that it was “painful” to learn that the Commonwealth of Learning was “begging” the previous administration to offer Coursera but they did not.
In using a printout from a news article from September 2018, to make her point, Manickchand pointed out that McDonald was quoted as saying “The teachers strike continues and the Guyana Teachers’ Union has said the nation’s educators had received more under the People’s Progressive Party than what they currently get under this coalition administration.”
She reminded that McDonald had said that it was “under the PPP teachers for the first time received additional benefits apart from a salary increase.”