Teachers protest against 20% tax on allowance

Teachers in the Kumasi Metropolis, who participated in the training on the new curriculum to be used in the next academic year for Kindergarten 1 to Primary 6, have protested against attempts by the Kumasi Metro Education Directorate to shortchange them.

The Ministry of Education has directed that public sector teachers be paid GH¢140 each for participation in feeding, travel and transport (T&T) and allowance.

The five-day workshop, from August 13-17, followed the launch of the new curriculum which is to be used in Ghanaian schools in the 2019/2020 Academic Year by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NaCCA) recently.

However, upon completion of the training last Saturday, the teachers had not been paid the allotted allowances amid rumours that they would be paid only GH¢50.00 as T&T, while the remaining GH¢50 as allowance would suffer 20% tax, making a total of GH¢90 yet to be paid.

They raised concerns as to the quality of food given to them which took GH¢40, as well as attempts to tax the allowance to be paid, generating some level of apprehension.