Teacher trainees march against abolition of allowances
Members of the Association of Teacher Trainees in Colleges of Education in the Northern Sector (ATTRICONS) on Tuesday took to the streets of Bolgatanga to protest against government’s decision to scrap teacher trainee allowances and have it replaced with the student’s loans scheme.
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The students matched through the principal streets in Bolgatanga carrying placards some of which read: “is this the quality of education you speak about”, “why only teacher trainees”, “we need allowances for quality teacher education”.
The students, comprising students from the St John’s Bosco’s and the Gbewa Colleges of Education all in the Upper East Region, in a petition called on government to strike down the allowances by half rather than scrapping it off entirely.
They said the decision was unfair and was an attempt at thwarting efforts at producing quality teachers.
The petition signed by the Sector President of ATTRICONS, Mr Mbugri Solomon Ndedaug, stated that the change of policy on the allowances on teacher education would be detrimental to the future of education in the country.
“Taking into consideration the historic antecedents that led to the implementation of the allowance scheme and the positive effect it has had on teacher education in particular and basic education over the years, we strongly believe it will not be in the interest of the country if the scheme is abolished” it said.
The Association said the only excuse government had attributed to its decision was the increment in the colleges of education admission quota and it could not demonstrate if there was a hundred percent increment in the national quota.
It further stated that the allowance scheme had over the years successfully served as motivation and attraction for quality teachers in the country and that the allowance scheme to be substituted with the student loan scheme could not serve the same purpose.
The petitioners said there was the need to institute more attractive packages for teacher trainees to deal with the worrying situation of teacher deficits as figures from the Ghana Education Service revealed that Ghana had a teacher deficit of 60,000 and a pupil teacher population of about 80,000 bringing the total professional teacher deficit to about 140,000.
The students presented a petition to the Upper East Regional Minster for the President.
Meanwhile, a section of the general public the Ghana News Agency (GNA) spoke to kicked against the decision to scrap the allowances as it would over burden and adversely affect parents and students alike.
They said abolishing the allowance scheme was not the best option at addressing the situation as it would lead to a decrease in enrolment in teacher training college.
They said the allowances had been a ‘saviour’ to lots of brilliant but poor youth, especially in northern Ghana and therefore any attempt to abolish it would only compound the already worsening situation of parents in the three northern regions.
Mr Emmanuel Ayambila, a beneficiary of the teacher trainee allowance, said “but for the allowances, most of us would have been sitting and loitering about at home in search of other means,”.
Mr Eric Amoh, a guardian to a number of students he had sponsored through teacher training and nursing colleges, said the option of these students most of whom have completed and are working to choose the colleges was because there were sustainable means of their education through the allowances.
He said all the students he sponsored were through proceeds from his private business and that they were all qualified to enter the universities.
“They could not even raise money to pay university admission fees and the best option was to pay their fees so that through the allowances they received they could sustain payment of their fees in the years ahead.,”