President Mahama has justified the withdrawal of allowances meant for teacher trainees; reiterating the fact that government does not have the financial capacity to maintain the allowances.
"Government has not been able to admit to the full capacity of the training colleges because government does not have enough money to pay the teacher trainee allowances," he stressed.
The Concerned Teacher Trainees Association of Northern Region has petitioned President Mahama over the withdrawal of the allowances.
According to them, the withdrawal could affect the majority of teacher trainees who relied on the allowances to pay their fees.
Addressing the issue at the Flagstaff House, President Mahama also explained that scrapping the allowances would also enable government admit more students into the various colleges of Education.
"Tertiary institutions have the capacity to take double the students, but because of the ceiling on the teacher trainee allowances, it cannot do that."
According to him: "If we upgrade the colleges of education and we say they are tertiary institutions and can award university degrees, why would you pay one group teacher trainee allowance and not pay the other allowance."
"If we take away the teacher trainee allowance, then we can fill these colleges of education to full capacity, and see whether we need some more," he remarked.
No comments:
Post a Comment