Five years after the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) was launched as a flagship education initiative, the programme has surpassed its scholarship targets and absorbed at least $17.3 billion in public funding. More than 54,000 scholarships have been awarded since 2021, providing unprecedented access to tertiary education for thousands of Guyanese.

As enrolment numbers and budget allocations continue to climb, attention is increasingly shifting from the number of scholarships awarded to the results being achieved. How many graduates have secured jobs in their fields of study, advanced professionally, started businesses, or contributed to addressing Guyana’s growing skills shortages? Despite billions of dollars being invested in the programme, comprehensive public data on these outcomes remains limited, leaving taxpayers with few answers about the return on one of the country’s largest investments in higher education.

Government figures show GOAL awarded 6,280 scholarships in 2021, followed by 7,410 in 2022, 7,752 in 2023, 8,316 in 2024, 10,805 in 2025 and 14,064 in 2026. By this year, the programme had issued a cumulative 54,627 scholarships—almost three times its original target of 20,000 scholarships over five years.