Prez Mahama justifies scrapping of trainee allowance
President John Dramani Mahama has justified the withdrawal of allowance for trainee teachers, saying that the move has increased enrolment in the colleges of education.
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He said while attempts to increase teacher intake at the training institutions failed due to the lack of funds to pay allowances, replacing that with the Students Loan Trust Scheme had increased intake from 9,000 to 15,000 in just a year.
Speaking at the opening of the fourth Quadrennial and 51st Delegates Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Accra yesterday, President Mahama explained that the withdrawal affected only new students but continuing trainees continued to receive their allowances.
The four-day conference is being held on the theme: "Education in Crisis - The Development Agenda Beyond 2015," and has in attendance over 800 delegates from the 10 regions of the country.
Delegates would review the performance of the GNAT, elect new national officers and chart the way forward for the association.
Justification for the withdrawal
President Mahama said many basic schools, particularly those in the rural areas, lacked teachers, with only two teachers handling six classrooms in some schools, a situation that informed the government's decision to withdraw the allowance for teacher trainees to enable the various colleges of education to enrol and train more teachers.
Hinting that enrolment into teacher training colleges was expected to further increase this year from last year's 15,000, President Mahama said although Ghana had made strides in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on school enrolment and gender parity, there was still more work to be done to achieve quality education.
Facilities
Outlining some of the government’s achievements, President Mahama said more basic school buildings had been built to eliminate 2,000 schools under trees, with 2,300 of them remaining.
He said the government had also expanded facilities at senior high schools (SHS), indicating that his administration was poised to provide community day SHSs in deprived communities.
Among others, President Mahama mentioned the construction of science laboratories in SHSs and the distribution of 12.5 million textbooks (on three core subjects) and millions of exercise books to basic schools as investments made in the education sector.
While recognising the important role teachers played in the development of the country, the President said more than one-third of the country's national budget went to the education sector alone.
He, therefore, charged teachers to increase their efficiency and productivity, and tasked the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to intensify the inspection regime to ensure regular attendance of teachers and the provision of quality education.
President Mahama reiterated the government's commitment to support efforts at improving the welfare of teachers, and commended the GNAT for introducing the welfare fund to assist members with loans, as well as a housing scheme.