Over GHC124 million released to pay Free SHS grant, teacher trainee allowances

Government on Tuesday announced the release of GHC124,520,623 to settle arrears of Free SHS grant, teacher trainee allowance and feeding grant for Colleges of Education across the country.

A total of GHC46,069,423 will be disbursed to public schools implementing the government’s Free SHS as the third term grant which has been outstanding for the last seven weeks.

The disbursement covers payments made to the Buffer Stock to provide food for students under the Free SHS.

The release of the money comes barely 24 hours after the Senior High Schools across the country implementing the Free SHS programme complained of serious financial crisis due to government’s failure to release grants for the third term.

The schools are currently in their seventh week of the third term of the 2017/2018 academic year, claimed they have since reopening been running without the Free SHS grant for the term.

Meanwhile, an amount of GHC40,010,112 from the total sum will go to pay Teacher Trainee Allowance for four months from April to July 2018.

The rest, GHC38,441,088, is to be paid to the National Commission for Tertiary Education for onward payment to Principals Conference (PRINCOF) in respect of the Colleges of Education feeding grants.

The amount for the feeding grant of Colleges of Education, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the Ministry of Education, is the full payment, but did not state whether for the year or the current term.

The Ministry said the release of the funds forms part of the government’s commitment to quality education delivery outcomes in the country.