A non-governmental organization (NGO), the African Foundation for Educational Development (AFFED), has petitioned the government to stop paying trainee allowances.
According to AFFED, the government is having difficulty paying the allowance after six months of arrears.
After his predecessor, John Dramani Mahama, suspended the arrangement, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo reinstated it in 2017.
The restoration went into effect on September 12th, 2017, the same day that the free senior high school (SHS) program was officially launched.
He explained that the reinstatement of the allowances was part of the government's efforts to provide quality education under the free SHS program.
“Central to the prospects of this policy is the teacher. A well trained, confident and content teacher is essential in the delivery of quality education. If we are to succeed as a nation and if we accept that education is central to national development, then it is clear that quality teacher training is vital to our nation’s development,” Mr Akufo-Addo said.
"It is undeniably clear how government is suffocating in honoring its promise to pay trainee allowances, especially at this time when the allowance has been in arrears for six (6) months," according to a statement issued by AFFED on Monday November 29 and signed by its Executive Director, Ernest Kwame Adade.
"Since the reintroduction of trainee allowance, the African Foundation for Educational Development (AFFED) has stated that the purpose of allowance in our training institutions has been defeated and has outlived."
"The government must take the following steps to save training colleges from their current dreadful situation. To give colleges a facelift, eliminate the trainee allowance.
"Invest approximately Gh400 million on college infrastructure development. Colleges require dorms to be converted into hostels, classrooms to be upgraded into lecture halls, and trainees to have access to updated libraries and quality laboratories. If we are still interested in giving incentives for trainees as a country, the better incentive would be a complete decrease of the excessive fees they pay."
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