Stop deceiving Ghanaians about cancellation of trainee allowance – Mahama told

A student group, Teachers and Trainees Advocacy (TTA) has warned former President John Mahama to stop deceiving Ghanaians about the cancellation of the teacher training allowance during his tenure in office.

According to TTA, comments by Mr Mahama to the effect that the trainee teachers allowance was not scrapped but rather replaced with Students’ Loan “is untrue and an arrant contradiction.”

“How can the allowance be at one instance not cancelled and another replaced with Students’ Loan Trust Fund,” TTA quizzes Mr Mahama who is leading the opposition NDC into the 2020 Presidential election.

TTA says in a statement dated July 15, 2020 that the trainee teachers allowance was a free mechanized payroll disbursement which had no repayment clauses and interest rate accruals to the consolidated fund.

It noted that the trainee allowance can not be replaced or substituted with a loan scheme which comes with a repayable clauses and massive stringent conditions before a teacher trainee could access the loan with Students Loan Trust Fund.

TTA says its research shows that only 30 percent trainees were able to go through the ordeals and difficult qualifying conditions to access the students loan, from the year 2013 to 2016 when the allowance was cancelled.