The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government is under fire for what critics are calling a shameless election gimmick, following recent announcement of free university tuition starting in 2025. While the government is hailing the move as a landmark achievement, many see it as a desperate attempt to win votes — not a genuine commitment to uphold the Constitution, which guarantees free education from nursery to university, a right the PPP has denied for decades.
The University of Guyana (UG) is reporting a surge in applications for the 2025/2026 academic year following the government’s recent announcement that, beginning January 1, 2025, all tuition fees for diploma, bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD programmes will be eliminated. University officials say more than 1,200 applications are being received weekly, a number that underscores what many critics argue is pent-up demand suppressed by decades of unaffordable tuition.
While government supporters have praised the move as historic, education advocates, civil society, constitutional scholars, and opposition voices argue the decision comes far too late. They point out that free tertiary education has been a constitutional right in Guyana since the Forbes Burnham era, enshrined in Article 27 of the Constitution, which guarantees that: “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.”
That right, they say, was violated for decades as students were forced to pay steep tuition fees, a system maintained under every PPP administration. “The PPP is not giving anything to the people — they are restoring what they have long denied,” said one former UG lecturer. “And they are only doing it now because an election is around the corner.”
Critics argue that if the government was genuinely committed to upholding the Constitution and expanding access to education, free tuition would have been implemented as early as 2020 when the PPP returned to government. Instead, thousands of students were either priced out of the university system entirely or forced into financial hardship to complete their studies.
“The government is celebrating this like it’s a gift. It’s not,” said one recent UG graduate. “It’s a right that was denied for years. And now they want applause for honouring the Constitution after violating it for decades?”
There is also growing public pressure for the government to address the status of those who paid tuition under the old system. Many are now calling for reimbursements or at the very least, acknowledgment of the financial burden that was unjustly imposed on past students.
President Irfaan Ali framed the move as a fulfillment of a key manifesto promise, claiming it would benefit more than 11,000 current students and all future entrants. But to many observers, the timing suggests the policy is less about principle and more about political survival.
“This is not a bold policy move. It’s a calculated one,” said a political analyst. “The PPP is not leading — it’s reacting. Reacting to years of pressure, to constitutional obligations, and to the approaching ballot box.”
With expected overwhelming flow of applications as students race toward the May 16 deadline, one question cuts through the noise: can the PPP’s last-ditch move erase years of silence, inaction, and constitutional neglect? Per the Constitution of Guyana education is not a favour, it’s a right. That the PPP only seems to remember this when elections are near is most unfortunate said a former student.
