Re: Teacher Trainee Allowance Ready; Government To Spend GHC144m Per Academic Year

The article ‘Teacher Trainee Allowance Ready; Government To Spend GHc100M Per Academic Year’ written by Seth J. Bokpe of the Daily Graphic that appeared in the 30^thAugust, 2017 edition of the Daily Graphic makes an interesting reading.

There is no doubt that any Ghanaian who reads this article will doff his or her hat for the government for honouring its campaign promise to the teacher trainees though it initially failed to pay the allowances within the first 100 days as promised.

Such an article, without doubt, would have passed without any criticism but for the government to deduct Ghc196.00 from the allowances of final year students to the College authorities as feeding and utility fees beats my imagination.

To begin with, the Nana Akuffo Addo led government prior to the 2016 general election promised all teacher trainees of restoring the allowances which was scrapped by the then Mahama led government. This promise made all continuing students in the Colleges of Education to cast their vote in his favour. Unfortunately, the announcement of restoration of allowances by the government makes no provision for the continuing students to whom the ‘sermon’ of restoration of allowances was preached.

One would have expected that at least a compensation of a sort would have been given to these students who have completed college and are awaiting their results and posting. That notwithstanding, the government must try its possible best to pay their salaries early to prevent the annual ritual where newly trained teachers received their first salary a year or two after completion.

Secondly, the intention of the Government to deduct GHC196.00 from the allowances of the final year students is ill-informed. This is because, in the Colleges of Education, the first four semesters is used to study content and the methods of teaching in the basic schools. Level 100 and 200 students are therefore mandated to reside on campus where they are fed and accommodated hence the need to pay feeding and utility fees.

In the case of the level 300 student, they are posted to various basic schools across the region of their college where they are expected to practice the methods of teaching learnt in the first four semesters in the college. These final year students rent houses in the various communities they are posted to for a year. They pay their own rent, utility bills and are not fed by the College.

The intention of the government to deduct Ghc196.00 from their allowances must therefore be re-looked at. If for anything at all, the only deduction from the proposed Ghc400 should be the mandatory one percent of the allowance to the Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG) as monthly dues. In light of this, the final year student expects nothing less than Ghc396.00 as monthly allowances.

Finally, prior to the restoration of the allowances, each student in the college of Education paid Ghc5.00 per day as feeding fee to the college authorities. If you ask me, Ghc5.00 is still more than enough to feed the students per day because the food items are bought in bulk, the matrons are also employed by the Government and are paid monthly.

The cooking is therefore not profit oriented. It came as a surprise to us when we heard the daily feeding fee had been increased from GHC5.00 to GHC6.50 and is to be deducted from the allowances. But just as the Holy books teaches us, ‘To whom who much is given, much is expected’ the increment in feeding fee must correspond with the quality and the quantity of the meal given to the students. If after sometime there is no improvement in the meals, the government must take the bold step to scrap the feeding and allow the students to feed themselves.

From the discussions so far, it would be erroneous on the part of the government to deduct Ghc196.00 from the allowances of final students to the colleges’ authorities as feeding and utility fees.

By:
Saviour Gokah,
Newly Trained Teacher,
Tema.