Scrap allowance and provide a better student loan scheme – Africa Education Watch
A robust student loan system has been advocated for by the education think tank, Africa Education Watch to replace the payment of allowances and feeding grants to trainees of public Colleges of Education.
A debate sparked out about whether such grants and feeding allowances paid teacher trainees should be scrapped after the release of over GH¢ 67 million to public Colleges of Education to settle their six-month feeding arrears.
Meanwhile, some sections of the public opined that since the colleges have been upgraded to university status, they should not be given such grants. Interestingly, the allowance which was replaced with the student loan scheme in 2016, was restored by the New Patriotic Party government in 2017.
Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare expressing his view on the situation, advised that the way out of the woods is to reinforce the student loan system.
“If you look at the issue from the physical perspective, the government already had systems working to solve these problems; the student loan. We haven’t made the student loan a responsive one. The student loan scheme has not been able to disburse monies to those who have applied and have not even given the opportunity to others to apply. The reason is that GETFund has also not been able to release monies to them.”
He also urged the government to provide the needed infrastructure to the Colleges of Education if they have been upgraded to university status.
“To the best of my knowledge, the colleges have now become tertiary institutions, and it is the responsibility of the government to upgrade their facilities to the level of a full-fledged university.”
