Teacher trainees in the country have accused government and its communicators of misleading the entire nation.
At a press briefing in Ho today[Wednesday]the Volta Regional President of the Teacher Training Association of Ghana (TTAG) Melesusu Elikem Derrick said although government claimed to have substituted the allowances with feeding grants to feed trainees three times daily, the grants are not forthcoming.
[contextly_sidebar id=”LNMYYeGDa8AApogjkoqBakI4iPYFfjoi”]“It will interest all well-meaning Ghanaians to note that, from the inception of this new reform by the government from 2014 till date (2016), three semesters of feeding grants are still in arrears.”
He added that final year trainees currently on out segment (teaching practice) are made to bear the entire cost of living without any subventions.
“Level 300 students currently serving the nation on their final year attachment have to pay a one year rent for their accommodation since the government has not made any provision to house them after te course work on campus”
Elikem Derrick also accused the various colleges’ education of wanton extortion of monies from teacher trainees as payment of utility bills.
“We applaud the effort of government since 29th June, 2015 for lifting the burden of utility bills on all tertiary institutions of which colleges of education form part. But aside this, it is worth noting that, extortion has become the order of the in some colleges in the region and beyond.”
He said the decision to scrap their allowances is rather overburdening them since the students’ loans are woefully inadequate.
“We want to state equivocally that, what is given as the student loan is far less than what we pay as fees. The amount of money received as laons per semester is GHC300.00 to GHC450.00 as against the exorbitant semester school fee which ranges from GHC860.00 to GHC1,123.00.”
The trainees said “what beats our imagination is the continuous dust that government communicators continue to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians that they are indeed catering for the trainees.”
Adding that “we want to sound it clear to all government communicators to stop their propaganda on the issue of teacher trainees because it is only he that wears the shoes that knows how it pinches.”
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By: King Norbert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana