We did not cancel teacher trainee allowance – Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman
Running mate to John Mahama in the 2020 election, Prof Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman has stated that the National Democratic Congress did not scrap the teacher trainee allowance but replaced it with loans.
She explained that this move was to ensure that students will get more money for their upkeep while under training.
Prof Agyeman opined that the loans that were granted to the teacher trainees were twice the amount that was given to them as allowances.
Speaking at a ceremony at the Wesley College in the Ashanti Region, the former education minister said some persons have claimed in different media programmes that the allowance was scrapped and monies due the trainees were withheld from them but, “I need to emphasize that we never scrapped the allowance. We never took anybody’s money from them. All those who were receiving the allowance, received them till it ended. We gave them the loans that were about twice what they were getting as allowances because we thought they needed more.”
The allowance for subject teacher trainees has recently become topical in Ghana’s media following reports that many trainees are owed allowances of more than four months.
It comes at a point where there have been discussions around making teacher trainees to feed themselves over the non-payment of feeding allowances by the government.
The government swiftly announced its intervention by releasing the allowances to cater for the feeding of the trainees.
