Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo today announced that since the introduction of the Government’s loan forgiveness programme for University of Guyana students, some 346 students have benefitted to the tune of $203.7M.

At his weekly press conference this afternoon, Mr. Jagdeo said the Government is seeking to write-off an additional 2,900 student loans this year which will cost approximately $5 Billion.

He said the writing off of student loan is the first phase towards the reintroduction of free university education for the first time in 30 years.

“And it is anticipated that by the end of the year, another 2,900 students would also get their debts written off, if we use the same average, it will be about another $5B this year alone and if more people come in, we will write off all of it off in a single- year, the full $18B, so I want to urge the students who have outstanding debts to apply for the write-off so that we can proceed in doing so,” Mr. Jagdeo told a press conference.

The writing off of student loans will be done in phases, with $11B in student loans set to be written off in the first phase.

Government is also examining a mechanism to assist students who would have already paid their fees to the university but are repaying loans to commercial banks.

The University of Guyana provided free education up until 1994, when charges were introduced under the PPP Civic Government and then President Dr. Cheddi Jagan.

“There is about $18B in debts owed by students for the past maybe 20 years to the University of Guyana, the only condition for you to be eligible for this write-off is being here in Guyana and there are there other criteria other than being in Guyana and contributing to national development,” Jagdeo said.

Meanwhile, the Vice President said that the Government continues to make tertiary education accessible. He urged persons to make use of the opportunities under the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarship programme,  which has already benefitted thousands of persons.

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