Government has given a strong indication that the restoration of the abolished trainee teachers’ allowances will soon follow after restoring that of nurses.
The disclosure comes during the launch of the restoration of the nurses’ trainee allowances by the government Tuesday.
The erstwhile administration of ex-president John Mahama in 2014 scrapped the age-old teacher trainee allowance, replacing it with student loans to ensure parity, since other tertiary students were on the students’ loan scheme. Livid by the government’s decision, the trainee teachers resorted to demonstrations to compel the government then to rescind its decision but former president Mahama did not succumb.
In the heat of the 2016 elections then candidate Akufo-Addo made the restoration of the trainee teachers’ allowances one of the key elements of his campaign.
Unnerved by the seeming delay in the restoration of their allowances by the government, Students of Kwadaso Agric Training College took to the street to register their displeasure over what they say is the government’s unwillingness to uphold its campaign pledge to them.
But in an address at the launch of the restoration of the trainee nurses’ allowances, the Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu hinted that: “…On the heels of implementing the free Senior High School policy, comes the implementation of the Nurses, Midwives trainees allowances. These will soon be followed by the restoration of the teacher trainee allowances.”
According to the government, 58,000 health trainees in all trainee institutions had been budgeted for at GH¢400 per month for 10 months in an academic year and adequate measures had been put in place to ensure sustainability of the payment with a laid down electronic payment mechanism to ensure “convenience and accountability.”
The restored monthly allowances of the trainee nurses will cost the government GH¢232 million this academic year, according to the President.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
