The Trainee Teachers Association of Ghana (TTAG) has described us “unfair” Government’s decision to scrap teacher trainee allowances and replace it with a students’ loan scheme.
At a press conference held in Accra on Monday to register their discontent, the National Executives of the Association said they will on September 23 “resort to an appropriate language” [Government] understands” if their efforts to contact the relevant authorities proves futile.
According to the National President of the Association, Seidu Ahmed, neither government nor the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) has given attention to their plight despite several efforts to get their attention.
“First, we need to recognize and accept the fact that Colleges of Education are not universities neither are they polytechnics but rather a subset of the tertiary education system. Like the polytechnics and the universities, colleges of education have different and equally important mandates, so far as their contribution to national development is concerned. The universities are not better than the polytechnics or the colleges of education, but are different institutions with different roles that complement each h other to realize the aspirations of the tertiary system of education in the country”, said Seidu Ahmed.
The Association says the students’ loan scheme will not provide the same incentives as the trainee allowance.
“We believe this will not only affect effective teaching and learning but also drastically reduce the number of highly intellectual individuals, who go into colleges of education every year. We are aware of the government’s effort at increasing the admission quota of the colleges of education, especially with the huge number of applicants this year. However, we strongly believe that, the abolishment of the allowance scheme is not the best means of addressing the situation”, the Association’s President said.
They have asked Government to take a second look at the decision as failure to do so poses a threat to education in the country.
