Educationist cum-psychologist Dr. Samuel Ziggah has asked the government to swallow the bitter pill and scrap the teacher training allowance since it does not make economic sense.
He noted that as a people we have to admit that we have allowed politics to blind our sense of judgment and objectivity, allowing the issue of the training allowance to drain our resources.
He was responding to the latest issue of the failure of the government to release funds to cover the feeding grant of colleges of education.
Principals of Colleges of Education had directed that Teacher Trainees will begin feeding themselves from May 8, due to non-payment of feeding grants.
But the Education Minister Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum announced that the government had released an amount of GH₵67,942,652 has been released to the Colleges of Education to cater for the feeding of teacher trainees.
“I am very happy today to inform you that the government has released GHC67,942,652 to Colleges of Education. I know you may have read the media reports, there were many calls on us to respond to the concerns of PRINCOF and we want to take advantage of your presence here to make the country know that the President of the Republic, the Finance Minister, and all those who are to ensure that various promises made to Colleges of Education are carried through, have delivered on their promise and that is why once again, this amount has been released to colleges of Education,” the Education Minister announced.
Reacting to this, Professor Ziggah noted that we have to scrap the allowance because it is not a policy we can sustain.
He said it is long overdue for us to scrap the teacher training allowance and feeding grant for the teacher trainees.
He opined that the government should allow the trainees to feed themselves.
“We have to scrap the trainee allowance. They have scrambled it but they lack the courage to tell Ghanaians it has been scrapped,” he stated.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana