MP bemoans unemployment, scrapping of teacher allowance

The Member of Parliament for the Bunkpurugu Constituency of the Northern Region, Solomon Boar, has revealed that the scrapping of teacher trainee allowances by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has compounded the unemployment situation in the Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo District.

Solomon Boar, who is seeking a third term in parliament on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party, has bemoaned the increasing rate of unemployment in the Bunkpurugu District, which he partly blamed on the scrapping of teacher trainee allowances.

According to him, a number of senior high graduates in the district who preferred teaching as their profession are unable to enroll in colleges of education due to the financial burden. “Every successful Bimoba has been a teacher before and that was because the allowances supported us but now we have a lot of them who have returned after first semester and cannot go back to school”.

The scrapping of the teacher trainee allowance was opposed by some stakeholders but government has maintained it will not reinstate the allowances and asked trainees to access the student loan facility. But the NPP Member of Parliament says the scrapping of the allowances has denied some prospective candidates the opportunity to further their education.

Most youth in the district are found in groups under political parties pavilions with no sign of employment. The few venture into agricultural but are left idle when the dry season sets in as they depend on rain-fed agriculture.

Solomon Boar at a rally in Bunkpurugu said the New Patriotic Party will get Ghana working again when voted into power. He mentioned the NPP’s one-million-dollar policy will help improve agricultural productivity and farmers’ livelihood in the district.

“The one million dollar policy is not a mirage and I will encourage the National Democratic Congress not to downplay it, they said the Free Senior High School was not feasible but today they have implemented it”.