The African Foundation for Educational Development (AFFED), a non-governmental organization (NGO), has requested that trainee allowances be canceled.
According to AFFED, the government is struggling to pay the stipend after six months of arrears.
After his predecessor, John Dramani Mahama, revoked the agreement, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo reinstated the teacher trainee payments in 2017.
The restoration went into effect on Tuesday, September 12th, 2017, coinciding with the official launch of the free senior high school (SHS) program.
He said that the reintroduction of the allowances was part of the government’s efforts to provide excellent education under the free SHS program.
“Central to the prospects of this policy is the teacher. A well-trained, confidence and content teacher is essential in the delivery of quality education. If we are to succeed as a nation and if we accept that education is central to national development, then it is clear that quality teacher training is vital to our nation’s development,” Mr. Akufo-Addo said.
However, according to a statement issued by AFFED on Monday, November 29, and signed by its Executive Director, Ernest Kwame Adade, “it is undoubtedly clear how the government is suffocating in honoring its promise to pay trainee allowances, especially at this time when the allowance has been in arrears for six (6) months.”
“African Foundation for Educational Development(AFFED) has since the re-introduction of trainee allowance maintained that the purpose of allowance in our training institutions have been defeated and long outlived.
“The following must be done by the government to save training colleges from their current appalling state.
To give colleges a facelift, cancel trainee allowance.
“Channel the over Gh¢400 million into infrastructure development in the colleges, Colleges need their dormitories converted into hostels, classrooms upgraded into lecture halls, Trainees need updated libraries and standard laboratory. If as a country, we are still interested in providing incentive for trainees, then the better incentive is a total reduction of the extravagant fees they pay.”
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SOURCE: 3NEWS
