I write in reference to Dr. Vincent Adams’ letter in today’s Stabroek News (August 29, 2025) captioned: “PPP/C’s reinstating Burnham’s visionary free education policy suggests an urgent grab for votes.” This is not the first desperate attempt by opposition elements to rewrite or distort historical facts in pursuit of a political narrative that favours them.
The fact of the matter is that state-sponsored university education was discontinued primarily because the economy was bankrupt. And thanks must go to the late L.F.S. Burnham—the same individual who is credited with pioneering free education—for the reason that it was under his stewardship that the economy collapsed, forcing the State to abandon free tertiary education. Under Burnham, Guyana descended into one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, with poverty levels soaring to nearly 90–95% of the population.
This was not a policy choice, but a condition imposed under the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) austerity program, part of the despairing rescue package to stabilize a bankrupt nation. And it wasn’t just university education that the State could no longer afford. The government could not even sustain its own workforce. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the public sector suffered the largest retrenchment in Guyana’s history, with approximately 13,000 jobs cut. This, too, was the direct result of Burnham’s economic mismanagement and the structural collapse he engineered.
This history is not opinion. It is well-documented in numerous World Bank reports and in the writings of distinguished Guyanese scholars. Let us also not forget: thanks to Burnham’s stewardship, Guyana was saddled with the highest debt burden in our history—debt nine times the size of the economy. Debt service consumed >150% of government revenue. Inflation ran in triple digits. Interest rates soared above 40%. Net international reserves were in the negative. Resultantly, Guyana carried the unenviable distinction of recording one of the highest emigration rates globally.
So let us be clear: it was not the PPP/C that ended free tertiary education. It was L.F.S. Burnham’s catastrophic economic management that forced its cessation. The very man hailed for introducing free education must also be held accountable for bankrupting the nation and destroying the very system he once touted. Those who now attempt to twist this history are not only dishonest—they are insulting the memory of every Guyanese who lived through that era of despair.