Executive Director of the African Education Watch, Kofi Asare has described the teacher trainee allowance policy as an “anomaly” that must be cancelled.
Mr. Asare thus called on government to use the 2022 budget statement as an opportunity to cancel the policy as it is only becoming a drain on the public purse.
According to him, the Government of Ghana has already spent over GHC600 million on teacher trainee allowances since 2017.
“An amount that could build over 1,500 JHS for the 4,000 primary schools without JHS due to no cash” he explained.
“The Finance Minister has an opportunity to reverse this anomaly today”, he added.
In accordance with Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution and Section 21 (3) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016, (Act 921), the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta will on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, lay before Parliament the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government.
But announcing their expectations of the 2022 budget, Kofi Asare in a Facebook post further explained that, “we cannot transform our basic education if we continue spending hundreds of millions on food for teacher trainees who could access student loans, at a time 20% of Primary School graduates cannot enter JHS especially in deprived districts”.
He also indicated that, building JHS with the money paid as allowances to the teacher trainees would rather open more teaching opportunities for thousands of unemployed teachers.