Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, the MP for Akatsi North Constituency, has highlighted the benefits that arose from the abolition of the teacher trainee allowances.
The allowance was scrapped by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government in 2014.
In an interview on Face to Face on Citi TV, the MP explained that other interventions replaced the scrapped teacher trainees’ allowance.
He labelled the NDC government’s proposal to scrap the allowances as “good”, highlighting that student enrollment increased during that period.
“It was good because it increased the number of students who wanted to go to colleges of education. It doubled the number from 8,000 to 16,000, for the first year, 100% enrolment in the first year. We realized that we could expand it, and allow more people to enter and what would happen was that we had to remove the allowances. Put other measures in place, if you needed money, the Students Loan Trust Fund was there, you could access it for money.
He also touched on the successes of the scrapping of the allowances, stating that the decision helped to address the teacher deficit in schools in the following years.
“It was going to solve the teacher deficit in our schools in the following years. But when we cancelled the allowances, and the NPP government came…they had to introduce the quota system. So, a college cannot admit 300 students this year [2023], because of the quota system.”
The Ranking Member of the Education Committee in Parliament expressed his concerns about the delay in the current government’s payment of the allowances to trainee teachers.
“They are receiving the allowances, but it comes when God knows. It’s nothing so much, they would have been better if it was not introduced. As it is now, they are paying fees in the colleges of education.”
Former President John Dramani Mahama insisted at the time that the decision enabled his government to expand the country’s educational infrastructure and remove admission restrictions to various training institutions.
However, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government restored the allowances after winning the 2016 elections.
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