Scrapping trainee allowance will worsen deployment - Education Minister

Deputy Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has dismissed calls to scrap training allowances for teacher trainees in the country.

Africa Education Watch (AEW), an education policy research and advocacy organisation, has proposed the cancellation of allowances for teacher trainees in the country.

The move, according to a statement issued by the organisation, is to help the government accelerate the developmental agenda of the country as well as allocate resources to the needed areas in education.

But speaking on PM Express on Joy, Deputy Education Minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum said cancelling teacher trainee allowance will worsen deployment in the education sector with regards to rural areas.

“We have a major issue in deployment where there is a lack of motivation for people to go to the rural areas. So if I happen to have a bachelor's degree in basic education from University of Cape Coast and I am not bonded in any way, shape, or form and you ask me to go to a remote area where I may not get trotro to move around easily, I may not go”.

“The allowance obligates teachers. The GES can tell you to go to a village and you would have to go. They would have to go because you provided him or her with allowance,” he explained.

Dr Adutwum also stated that government was actively working at expanding and providing enough school facilities to contain the large number of students the Free SHS policy had managed to bring into the nation’s educational system.

“The president said: ‘double-track, I’m ramping up infrastructure’. Now, look at the infrastructure that has been developed. I’ll give you a few examples. Almost every single school that has a double track has infrastructure being developed right now or in some places, it has already been completed.

“In addition to that, this president is building new schools. Go to Weija, a science school, big, with boarding facilities,” he said.

He urged Ghanaians especially those from less privileged backgrounds to be wary of politicians who promise to review the double-track system.

The Education Minister stated that National Democratic Congress’ flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, does not recognize the significance of the double-track system

“Anybody who talks about review and mentions double-track, Ghanaians should beware that if you happen to be poor you are in trouble. The man (John Dramai Mahama) is going to use another way of meeting that requirement and the poor will be disadvantaged big time.”