Creating a Local Content regime for the education sector
The scope and broad intent of the Guyana Act No 18 of 2021, Local Content Act 2021 seems wide enough for a discussion to ensue on the condition and direction of the education sector within its parameters. The Act seeks “to promote competitiveness and encourage the creation of related industries that will sustain the social and economic development of Guyana and other related matters”. It requires that foreign firms combine with locals to compete for business opportunities in Guyana. The local education and training sector is now rife with competition from foreign firms. This could be precisely why the recommendations of the Local Content Act must be used to build capacity towards a more diverse education sector in the medium to long term.
Foreign providers, such as universities and colleges from within CARICOM and elsewhere ought to be required to enter into partnerships with local entities in order to qualify for doing business in Guyana. In this way knowledge transfer and know-how will take place faster, with the newly established joint entities delivering the new programmes in future years. This will diversify the offerings of locally operating institutions. Our own local
Training Institute, JTW Management, has been involved in discussions with a Trinidadian school in order to arrive at an arrangement to allow for the delivery of its courses locally and through GOAL. In this way, after a period of 5 or 10 years, these alliances will result in a larger and more diverse array of colleges operating in Guyana, offering more choices across disciplines, making the sector more competitive.
Additionally, there can be an ‘opportunity fee’ charged for access to local business openings by foreign schools, sparing them the financial burden of capital investment to set up costly infrastructure here. This fee can be used to subsidize the emoluments of nurses and teachers. Having regard to the wide scope of the Local Content Act the following altogether appropriate questions arise:
1. Is Guyana interested in developing the “number, competencies and capabilities” of Guyanese companies involved in education in the training sector?
2. Does Guyana have a Master Plan for developing the tertiary education sector, utilizing a Local Content approach?
3. Is it not ‘unfair competition’ to local institutions for foreign schools to be afforded business opportunities that allow them to evade engagement with local businesses?
4. Is such a circumstance not inconsistent with the spirit of the Local Content Act?
5. Is the Government of Guyana itself subject to the provisions of the Local Content Act as far as its own industrial policy is concerned?
It appears that we can add more value to Guyana’s education and training sector if the provisions of the Act are applied to the Government of Guyana itself in its approach to industrial development, and especially, in tertiary education.