We didn’t introduce professional teachers allowance because of elections – Education Ministry

The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Kwesi Obeng Fosu, has debunked claims that the Ministry introduced the Professional Teachers’ Allowance to score political points for the 2020 December polls.

The Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, announced in parliament that the government is introducing a Professional Teacher Allowance (PTA) of GH¢1,200 per year for professional teachers and GH¢600 per year for non-professional teachers to deepen their commitment and spur professional growth.

Speaking on this initiative by the government, Kwesi Obeng Fosu stated that the government introduced this initiative to motivate the teachers as it has stated in its party manifesto that the teachers come first.

According to him, the government felt the need to focus on the teachers’ continuous professional development after it had solved the issue of the lack of teaching and learning materials.

“The Government has solved that issue of teaching and learning materials. After tackling that issue, we have then gone ahead to focus on the teachers’ continuous professional development. While we cannot cater fully for that, it is important that we support them with the little that we can with allowances. Going forward, we will support these teachers with more things."

"We are in an election year but that does not mean that we have to stop the work we have to do because of elections. We began arrangements for this programme way before the election year. We could have introduced this programme a day before elections but we didn’t do so”, he stated.

He was, however, of the view that the ruling New Patriotic Party will welcome a victory in the 2020 elections if Ghanaians show their appreciation by voting massively for the party.

“If Ghanaians believe in the work we do and are happy with our work and vote for us, we will be happy about that”, he added.