Reconsider intention to scrap students’ allowances – Group urges government

A group calling itself the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) has called on the government to reconsider its intention to scrap the payment of allowances to students in the colleges of education.

It said any attempt by the government to halt the payment of allowances to teacher trainees would aggravate the already bad situation in which the students found themselves.

The President of the CCT, Mr Ernest Owusu, made the call at a news conference in Accra last Wednesday, to highlight major challenges facing the educational sector.

He said an analysis by the coalition revealed, among other things, that facilities at the colleges were not sufficient to accord them a tertiary education status.

According to him, the policy to scrap the payment of allowances would demotivate prospective teachers from entering the teaching profession and also be a form of discrimination, since students in other diploma-awarding colleges such as the nursing training colleges continued to receive allowances.

“If we don’t take care, people will leave the teaching profession and go to other professions, not because of their passion for those professions but because of better conditions of service.

“We believe much effort should be placed on expanding and improving facilities at the existing colleges of education, instead of building new ones,” he said.

Touching on the non-payment of subvention to district directors of education, Mr Owusu said that had discouraged circuit supervisors from discharging their responsibilities of monitoring and supervising teachers.