No allowance for varsity teacher trainees - Education Minister-designate

Government will restore allowances for students of colleges of education but will not extend the payment to teacher trainees in the country’s universities, Education Minister-designate Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has hinted.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, during its campaign for the 2016 elections, assured thousands of teacher trainees across the country of the full restoration of their allowances, which were scrapped by the Mahama administration.

Asked by a member of the Appointments Committee of parliament on Tuesday 24 January if university students studying towards a degree in education would be included in the payment of allowances as the government prepares to restore the stipend, Dr Prempeh said: “Under the NPP manifesto, page 113…teacher trainee allowances will be fully restored. So those who were taking the allowances that have been stopped, it would be restored.”

The immediate past National Democratic Congress (NDC) cancelled the payment of allowances and replaced it with the student loan scheme.

The then government explained that its decision to replace the teacher trainee allowance with the loan scheme for colleges of education was to increase access and improve infrastructure.

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said government will announce the restoration of the allowances in their first budget in March.