The Ministry of Education yesterday announced that it was teaming up with the Ministry of Public Service to begin accepting applications for the awarding of online scholarships at overseas universities in a variety of disciplines.
In a statement, it cited the commitment made by President Irfaan Ali and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic in its manifesto running up to the election to grant 20,000 scholarships for Online Courses,
The statement said that the Ministry is working on operationalizing the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL), which will house this programme within this first half of 2021. This programme is for Guyanese across all communities in every region and will be made accessible accordingly, it said.
The Ministry of Education has the responsibility for managing the academic and technical aspects of the programme while the Public Service Ministry will award the scholarships.
The scholarships are tenable at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), JAIN (Deemed-to-be Univer-sity), the University of Applied Sciences (IUBH), Germany and the University of the West Indies (UWI)-Open. Only one course of study is available at UWI-Open: Certificate in Teaching of Readings.
The majority of the courses are available at IGNOU and JAIN and the Bachelor’s Degree programmes on offer include B. Com Management Accounting, B. Com Financial Markets, B. Sc Cyber Security, B. Sc Cloud Computing and B. Sc Artificial Intelligence. IUBH is offer Bachelor’s degrees in Business and IT, Robotics and Data Science.
Master’s degree programmes are also on offer at JAIN and cover among other areas: Economics, Public Policy and Administration, Aviation Management, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Cyber Security, Accounting and Finance. IUBH is offering Master’s degrees in Artificial Intelligence Cyber Security and Engineering Management.
Application forms and the courses available can be accessed at the links below.
In February this year, the Sunday Stabroek had been told that Guyanese students would soon be able to access online tertiary programmes from six universities with the planned launching of the online learning academy.
Director (pro tempore) Dr Jacob Opadeyi had told the Sunday Stabroek that the institute would launch with an offer of 4,540 scholarship placements at Universities such as the Indira Gandhi Open University, the University of Applied Science in Germany, the Open University in the UK and the University of the West Indies Open Campus.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand had told the Sunday Stabroek that the online programmes are a direct reaction to needs
“This is not the same as having Zoom classes or classes moved online due to COVID-19, these are programmes design-ed to be executed virtually and, therefore, resources, including library resources, are accessible to students,” she stressed.
According to Manickchand, while her Ministry is working with the University of Guyana and the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) to have their programmes moved online, they will not have the capacity to absorb the large enrollment envisioned.
“How many students can I enroll at UG and CPCE right now? I need hundreds of teachers right now. If someone from Region 8 wants to answer the call for teachers and enroll at CPCE, can they access the programme where they are?” she asked.
Opadeyi had explained to this newspaper that the programmes offered will not only touch on a variety of sectors but run the gamut from undergraduate certificates to Bachelor’s Degrees, post-graduate diplomas and Master’s Degrees, all designed to be completed online.
“Our institute will manage the academic programme, the examinations and all of that and the Ministry of Public Service will handle the award of scholarships”, he said.
Additionally persons without a government scholarship can still access the programmes as the general public will benefit from the volume discount which has been secured by the government.
“For example a degree programme offered at a negotiated price of US$1,000 will be offered at that price to those who get scholarships and those who don’t so if you do not get the scholarship and you can afford the fee you are open to register with us and pay the fee,” Opadeyi advised.
