Over GHS50 million released to pay feeding grant of teacher trainees

An amount of 50,532,000 has been released for the payment of feeding grants of students of Colleges of Education throughout the country, the Ministry of Education has said.

The amount, per a statement issued by the Ministry Wednesday and signed by the Head of Public Relations, Dan Osman Mwin, covers the year 2016. It, however, did not state when the amount was released.

Dozens of teacher trainees besieged the Ministry of Education Wednesday morning to put pressure on the government to pay the feeding grant, which they claimed had not been paid to them.

According to the teacher trainees, promises to pay the grants by President John Dramani Mahama and his Vice, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, after the scrapping of the trainee allowances hit a dead end.

“The leadership of teacher trainees has sent several petitions, letters to the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service. Several press conferences have been organised. Our leadership has gone ahead even to sleep at the Ministry but ‘something good’ is yet to come out of these efforts,” they claimed.

But the Ministry Wednesday said the amount paid also covers arrears for the second semester of 2014/15 academic year and the first semester of 2015/16 academic year.

“It is significant to also state that request for the outstanding half of the feeding grant for the second semester of the 2015/16 academic year, has been made to the Ministry of Finance and it is receiving the necessary attention,” it pointed out.