President Irfaan Ali last Sunday (December 31, 2023), during the broadcast ‘A conversation with the President’, announced that beginning this year the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government will take a phased-in approach to restoring the constitutionally protected right to free education, from nursery to university. Ali’s policy is rejected outright by Lincoln Lewis, General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC).
The veteran trade unionist calls Ali’s announcement an insult to the university fraternity- past, present and potential students. “Education in Guyana is a right, free from nursery to university as outlined in Article 27 of the Constitution of Guyana and this was among the first rights the PPP regime transgressed when they came to office.”
Per Article 27 “(1) Every citizen has the right to free education from nursery to university as well as at non-formal places where opportunities are provided for education and training.”
The General Secretary told Village Voice News when the constitutional right of students was taken away, Guyana was not an oil producing economy, neither did students have the option of a phased-in paying system. “The PPP was in breach of the law and remains in breach of the law,” he asserts.
Lewis says there must be no phased-in approach but full restoration, immediately, to relief working families and children who are suffering to eke out a daily living and further having to pay school fees, whether deferred or present.
“This regime remains in breach of the constitution and while Ali’s phased- in approach sounds more like an attempt at political electioneering, they must know they are doing Guyanese no favour, but righting a constitutional violation they have instituted and continue to commit.”
According to Lewis, “no piecemeal, no phased programme is acceptable; outstanding loans must be written off, and those who paid must be refunded. Furthermore, the nation can afford to pay for its children’s education from nursery to university.”
The trade unionist says when free education was introduced it was out of recognition education and access are important to development and to the extent where the PPP has denied this right, the party has undermined Guyana’s development trajectory.
Lewis, calling for greater investment in education, also notes the government has been spending heavily on external online universities instead of building local capacity on an education system that caters for Guyana’s developmental needs. “The mismanagement of Guyana’s educational system is testimony of the PPP’s mismanagement of the nation and their lack of vision for the development of Guyana through free and accessible education.”
Lambasting the government further, the general secretary states when the PPP introduced fee-payment it was an attempt to hinder the pursuit of higher education and the improvement of standard of living for the poor and workers, and a wicked political partisan attempt to erase the legacy of a previous administration they despised.
The People’s National Congress (PNC) government under the Forbes Burnham administration introduced free education from nursery to university as a fundamental right. This was removed by the PPP government of Dr. Cheddi Jagan.
The trade unionist says it is important also for the nation to know the trade union movement fought for free education and won it under the Burnham administration. This, he says, was considered a major workers’ victory and opportunity to improve workers’ education and standard of living.
