General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Lincoln Lewis, has issued a bold call for reparative justice in the form of tuition debt cancellation and full refunds to students who paid for their education at the University of Guyana. Citing Article 27 of the Constitution, which guarantees free education from nursery to university, Lewis argued that tens of thousands of citizens were unjustly burdened for decades.
Speaking at the May Day rally last Thursday, Lewis urged the government to rectify what he called “31 years of historic wrong.” In 1994, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) introduced tuition fees at the state-owned university, denying many Guyanese access to higher education and leaving others saddled with significant debt, often before entering the workforce.
While the government has reinstated free university education this year, succumbing after years of public pressure, persons questioned the sincerity of the move, noting it comes in an election year and belatedly given Guyana’s oil-fueled economic boom is now in its sixth year.
“We acknowledge the restoration of free education… but it was restored not out of kindness, but because of the people’s growing demands,” he declared.
Lewis stressed that while the restoration of free education is welcome, it does not address the deeper injustice faced by those who bore the cost over the past three decades. “For 31 years, tens of thousands of Guyanese were burdened with tuition fees they should never have paid. That injustice must be corrected.”
He called for the immediate cancellation of all outstanding tuition debt and full reimbursement for those who paid, framing it not as charity, but as a constitutional and moral obligation. “You cannot claim credit while ignoring the debt you owe,” Lewis stated.
Referring to his demand as “reparative justice,” the veteran trade unionist said “We cannot, on one hand, demand reparations from former colonial powers, while refusing to right the wrongs we impose on our own people. Justice must begin at home.” This framing positions the demand within the broader global reparations movement, equating domestic policy failures with the same principles of redress and restitution long demanded of former colonial powers.
Beyond tuition, Lewis reiterated the GTUC’s 15-point National Development Plan, which included the calls for expanded vocational and tertiary education, universal school feeding programmes, and access to soft loans for housing—policies aimed at addressing long-standing structural inequality. “This is not a wishlist,” he insisted. “This is a demand for dignity.”
In the context of Guyana’s status as the world’s fastest-growing economy since 2020, thanks to oil revenues, Lewis said the lack of equitable wealth distribution has become a moral crisis. “What does that growth mean to the single mother in Berbice, the jobless graduate in Linden, the pensioner, the public servant? Where is their share of the wealth? Where is their justice?”
Citing Article 13 of the Constitution, which guarantees inclusionary democracy and citizen participation, Lewis argued that the government must recognise its people not as burdens but as the rightful stakeholders of the Republic.
He further challenged the government’s credibility in advocating for international reparations while failing to correct domestic injustices. How can Guyana call for reparations from former colonial powers while refusing to right the wrongs we impose on our own people, he questioned. In a year already marked by social unrest and rising demands for reform, Lewis’s call has injected urgency and moral clarity into Guyana’s national discourse.
“Justice must begin at home,” he said, his voice rising above chants of ‘Solidarity Forever’ and national songs. It was not a plea. It was a demand.
GTUC’s resubmission of its long-standing national plan on May Day signalled the seriousness of its conviction that the time for platitudes is over. The time for repayment has come. And the debt is not merely financial. It is constitutional. It is generational. And it is long past due.
