Education Minister Sonia Parag on Monday launched a sharp rebuttal in the National Assembly against Opposition Member of Parliament Gordon Barker, accusing him of denouncing a government education initiative from which he personally benefited.
Parag’s comments came during the opening of the budget debates, shortly after Barker—making his first contribution to the House as a parliamentarian for We Invest in Nationhood (WIN)—criticised the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL). Barker characterised the programme, which provides free online tertiary scholarships to Guyanese, as a “potential atrocity.”
Responding from the government benches, Parag challenged the credibility of that criticism, telling the National Assembly that Barker had earned academic qualifications through GOAL-linked opportunities. She said the opposition MP completed a degree at Jain Deemed-to-be University under the GOAL framework and later advanced to doctoral studies through the same pathway.
Parag described the contradiction as striking, arguing that Barker’s remarks undermined his own academic record. She dismissed the opposition presentations on education as lacking substance, grouping Barker’s contribution with that of Coretta McDonald, who spoke later in the debate on behalf of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). Barker had earlier styled himself as the opposition’s Shadow Minister of Education, a move that highlighted ongoing internal coordination among the opposition parties sharing 29 seats in the House.
Turning to performance data, Parag defended GOAL as one of the government’s flagship social investments. She said more than 54,000 Guyanese were awarded scholarships between 2021 and 2025, with approximately 6,000 graduates completing degrees and certificates in 2025 alone.
Launched in 2021, the Guyana Online Academy of Learning partners with regional and international institutions to deliver certificates through doctoral programmes via online platforms. The initiative was initially designed to award 20,000 scholarships but has since surpassed that benchmark, forming a central pillar of the government’s strategy to widen access to tertiary and skills-based education nationwide.