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NPP Will Restore Scrapped Teacher, Nursing Trainees' Allowances—Bawumia

By StarrFMOnline
Headlines NPP Will Restore Scrapped Teacher, Nursing Trainees' Allowances—Bawumia
APR 17, 2015 LISTEN

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) will restore allowances paid to teacher and nursing trainees if it wins the 2016 elections.

The vice presidential candidate of the main opposition party Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia gave the assurance in the Volta region where he is visiting constituency executives and students.

He said the reasons being given by the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) government for scrapping the allowances is untenable, since the education and health sectors are essential for development.

'We are trying to build a globally competitive economy. We are a team and cannot ignore anyone,' the former deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana told Volta Premier FM ahead of a lecture at the Ho Polytechnic.

'When we put in the national health insurance it wasn't for a particular region, when we come in and restore the teachers training allowances it will be for everybody.

'The teachers are a different kettle of fish from any other graduate anywhere else. We can't make education a preserve of the rich and the allowances are critical for people enjoying these allowances. Families depend on them and we'll restore it,' Dr Bawumia emphasised.

He added: 'We need motivated teachers and nurses and if you don't have that you'll not get quality. Remember when we were a HIPC country without oil we were affording teacher and nursing training allowances and now that we are a lower middle income country with oil we are saying we can't afford it let's not prioritise judgement debts and GYEEDA and corruption. Let's prioritise education and health and the right thing to do is to restore the allowances.'

Protest
Earlier this week, it will be recalled that a planned programme dubbed Campus Connect, organised by the Ministry of Education was disrupted by some students selected from various institutions in the Ashanti region.

Though the students reported at the venue at the Wesley College in Kumasi, they walked out when it was time for the Deputy Minister of Education in-charge of tertiary, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwah to address them.

The students said their action was to protest the withdrawal of teacher trainee allowances by the John Mahama administration.

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