Teacher trainees cry over 4-months unpaid allowance

The Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana is unhappy over delays in the release of their monthly allowances which have been in arrears for four months.

According to the association, the arrears owed them fall between May and August, for the 2020/2021 academic year.

The President of the Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana, Jonathan Dzunu, said the association intends to engage the Ministry of Education over their concerns.

“Our allowances for May and August, for the 2020/2021 academic year have not been paid. We have met officials from the Student Loan Trust Fund, they have told us that they are putting plans in place to make sure the money is released to us.”

“We intend to meet other stakeholders, We are even hoping to reach the President and get to know our fate.”

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, prior to the 2016 elections promised to restore the allowances of teacher and nurse trainees which had been cancelled by the NDC government in 2014.

The NDC government said the decision was to allow it to expand various educational infrastructure in the country as well as remove the restrictions on admission to the various training institutions, and to make it possible for the trainees to also access student loans.

The NPP government has struggled to pay the allowances on time.

The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta in 2019 announced that the government had paid 48,000 teacher trainees GHC 532 million in allowances.

He also announced that the government will continue with the payment of allowances to a projected number of 54,108 trainee teachers.