Free education from Nursery to University has been a right of every Guyanese child since 1976. In spite of this constitutional mandate the right to free university education has been denied since the mid-1990s with promises made by successive governments to return a right that should have never been taken away. Education makes a nation. An educated society is a society beaming with potential for growth and development. Education is also the gateway out of poverty and to a better life.
The denial of university education is a hindrance for those who cannot pay, who have not received scholarship, or who cannot secure a guarantor. There are other hindrances to free education from the nursery to secondary levels such as distance and poverty that make difficult the ability of parents to feed their children, afford land or water transportation, purchase school uniforms and supplies, etc.
In other parts of the world children are fighting for an education many in Guyana take for granted. Take a listen to this UNICEF inspirational story of a child’s determination to pursue her dream during the period of the South Sudan civil war (2013-2015).
