The University of Guyana (UG), on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, celebrated the graduation of 12 students from its Elementary Wapichan Language Course (WAP1101). This is a major milestone in the University’s efforts to preserve, promote, and strengthen indigenous languages through higher education.

The graduates received their certificates during the inaugural GLU Indigenous Languages Awards Ceremony held at the Education Lecture Theatre (ELT), Turkeyen Campus, hosted by the Guyanese Languages Unit (GLU), a unit within the International Centre of Excellence for Modern and Indigenous Languages, Literatures and Linguistics (ICEMILL), Faculty of Education and Humanities.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Paloma Mohamed Martin, during her remarks, congratulated the graduates for being among the first to undertake the programme and acknowledged the years of advocacy and effort that made the initiative possible. “…we also want to thank you for being self-respecting enough, being respectful of the language and your Guyanese-ness, and courageous enough to be the first to have taken the leap to learn this language,” Professor Mohamed Martin said.