Gov’t to pay teacher trainee allowance in September

• Posted on May 10, 2017
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The scrapped allowance for teacher trainees across the country is to be restored by September this year, government has announced. Minister in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, who revealed this said the government is busily working on the modalities to restore the allowance by the next academic year in September Speaking at this year’s National Congress of Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG) at Dorma Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo Region, Prof. Yankah said the Akufo-Addo government is working to ensure that newly posted teachers are paid on time.

The congress was attended by the Executives of the Association in all the 31 Colleges of Education in the country. It discussed issues pertaining to quality teacher education and professional development. Professor Yankah said quality education calls for quality teaching, which he said demands that teachers at all times aspire to upgrade themselves to measure up to the challenge of their career. Acting President of TTAG, Jonathan Apam, called on government to redeem its pledge to restore their allowance, and also their feeding grants on time so as to relieve them of hardships.

The former president of TTAG, James Kwabena Bomfeh said investing in quality education is the surest way for national progress and called for a national forum to discuss issues relating to good educational systems for the country. He said government is busy working on modalities to restore teacher trainees allowance by September and also see to it that newly posted teachers are paid on time.

Background The John Mahama-led government in 2014 scrapped the teacher trainee allowance to be replaced with the student loan scheme, a move that received backlash from teacher unions and trainees across the country. Mr Mahama justified the decision and vowed to even lose the 2016 election on principle than to restore the allowance. “The problem with this allowance was that apart from the huge cost implication for the national budget, it also compelled government over the years to scale down the number of students entering into the colleges of education, through the imposition of what we call the quota system,” Mr Mahama said in May 2016. But the then candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo, promised to restore the allowance.

By Larry Paa Kwesi Moses