There have been mixed reactions from Ghanaians on the issue of the withdrawal of teacher trainee allowances by the government.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”MIZA4jn64jtaMqUmMfHHtMe6aFQ47uNI”]Teacher trainees have vowed to vote against the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government if it fails to restore the payment of their allowances before the 2016 general elections.<\/p>\n
Some Deputy Ministers; Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and Felix Kwakye Ofosu were heckled at the\u00a0Wesley College in Kumasi\u00a0in the Ashanti Region over the matter as the trainees sought to pressure the government to heed their demands<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Vice Presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has indicated\u00a0that if they are elected into office in 2016 the NPP will restore the teacher trainee allowances<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n However, the NDC\u00a0is sticking to its guns and has said that the government will not be persuaded to restore the payment<\/strong><\/span><\/a> of\u00a0the allowances.<\/p>\n Speaking on The Big Issue<\/strong> on Saturday, several stakeholders on the matter, including teachers and students at some colleges of education voiced out their opinion on the on-going debate.<\/p>\n “Government seems to think that by withdrawing the allowances, it had increased the number of intakes. The other argument is that the allowance at the time that it was being given had cushioned a lot of people like me. Had it not been for the allowances, I would not have been a teacher. We should stay with the policies. We should stay with the allowances.” Hamed a teacher said.<\/p>\n However, a different view was expressed by Albert, whose mother was a teacher.<\/p>\n He believes that the government should be commended by their efforts to increase the number of teachers in the country.<\/p>\n “The policy is in the right direction. We now don’t have money in the economy. Everybody knows that. If that is going to increase the intake of teachers that we need to develop our nation I give them thumbs up for it. We need to admit more teachers, that is what we need.” Albert said.<\/p>\n A \u00a0third caller, Esi, a second-year student at a college of education, welcomed the government’s plans to train more teachers but called for government to fulfill its promise to pay other charges in order to offset the loss of the allowances.<\/p>\n “I believe that the government should train more teachers. But Government also promised to pay our feeding fees and when it was paid last year we were able to afford to pay some of our bills and for our books. It is kind of difficult living without the allowances. Even though now we can see those who really want to be teachers and not people who go to the Colleges of Education for the allowances, we are finding problems.\u00a0We are supposed to pay over 1000 cedis and last year we paid over 1300 cedis. \u00a0So it will be good if they can pay at least the feeding fees,” she said.<\/p>\n A teacher, Christian Aryee argued that there needed to be a more holistic approach to the debate over the allowances calling for government and all stakeholders to carefully analyse the matter before making pronouncements.<\/p>\n “There are two sides of the coin. If the Government says they are scrapping the allowances in order to increase the intake of teachers they should bear something in mind. If the teachers are paying their own fees, when they come out they are going to demand more salaries. Is the government willing to pay? If they are then there’s no problem. But are we looking at increasing the numbers or getting more quality teachers?,” he queried.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reaction from social media<\/strong><\/p>\n Many Ghanaians also took to social media to express their views on the issue. Here are a few of the views from Facebook and Twitter:<\/p>\n .@Citi973<\/a> let’s focus our efforts on raising quality of instruction for those already posted… #TheBigIssue<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Amma Aboagye (@a_aboagye) April 25, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n