ATTORNEY-General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall S.C. on Tuesday accused the political opposition of living in “La-La-Land”, chiding Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton for now calling on the President, Dr Irfaan Ali-led administration to implement programmes which the opposition coalition removed while it was in government.
Nandlall made these remarks during his weekly “Issues in the News” programme streamed on social media platform, Facebook.
During a Tuesday media conference, Norton had said that the opposition A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) will “bring back free University of Guyana” while he added that a coalition government will also write off student debt and pay education stipends to students.
Speaking on this and other pronouncements made by the Opposition leader, AG Nandlall recognised that while the Opposition Leader sits in his press conference to “boast” about bringing free university education, it was his party, when in government, that imposed fees and increased fees at the national university by 35 per cent.
The Legal Affairs Minister also said that while Norton noted his party would remove Value Added Tax (VAT) from education, it was also the former David Granger-led administration that imposed taxes on education.
Many of the issues that the Opposition Leader mentioned during his Tuesday press conference, including ensuring all children are provided with computers and that cash grants are distributed, were policies of the past People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government that were all scrapped when the APNU+AFC entered office in 2015, Mr Nandlall noted.
Nandlall said: “when you listen to him speak about his policies, you realize that this man is in ‘la la’ land; he is dreaming; he is living in another reality because every single thing he says, they did the very opposite, the exact opposite when they were in government.”
Nandlall believes it is important that the Guyanese public see and hear the pronouncements made by the Opposition Leader and compare that to the APNU+AFC’s performance while in government.
The PPP/C, during the 2020 General and Regional Elections campaign, committed to improve the quality of education in Guyana.
Further, President, Dr. Irfaan Ali at the beginning of his tenure in office announced that the government is working to provide free education at the University of Guyana by the end of 2024.
Additionally, the government has made significant investments in education since entering office two years ago.
These investments include the $74.4 billion which was budgeted for the education sector in 2022, of which some $3.5 billion is set aside for the operation of the University of Guyana’s campus and expansion of the course offerings for both in-person and virtual classes.
Additionally, thousands of Guyanese have benefited from the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) programme through the provision of full scholarships for training at the certificate, undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels.