CoE principal calls for ¢149 teacher trainee allowance cancellation

Joseph Amikuzuno, the principal of St. John Bosco’s College of Education has proposed teacher trainee allowance cancellation to enable Colleges of Education to admit more qualified WASSCE graduates in the next academic year.

He explained the payment of the teacher trainees allowance by the government directly affects students’ enrollment in Colleges of Education adding that it forces the teacher training institutions to admit below their capacities.

BUY 2023 WASSCE RESULTS CHECKER HERE

Amikuzuno said St. John Bosco for instance could admit more WASSCE graduates but for the quota imposed on Colleges of Education, his outfit had to admit far less than it can handle amid the re-introduced trainee allowances.

“Last year, we had over 3,000 applicants seeking admission into St. John Bosco’s College of Education. But we could only admit 300 and even that 300, we went over a quota that the government had given us. The government asked us to admit only 270,” he said.

The College principal said is long overdue that the central government scrap the teacher trainee allowance it has labelled as an incentive to attract people particularly second-cycle institution graduates into the teaching profession.

“Without the allowance, we will still have students trooping into the Colleges because they know that when they complete, they have jobs as teachers to begin with. So from my point of view, the allowance should be off. The trainees should be given loans,” he said.

Joseph Amikuzuno’s proposal comes after the Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG) announced the teacher trainees allowance component has been reduced from GH¢200 to GH¢149.00 to supplement the feeding of students in public Colleges of Education.

In a statement shared with AcademicWeek, TTAG said the reduction of the allowance component is based on the request from Principals of Colleges of Education (PRINCOF) to the Ministry of Education (MoE) last academic year to supplement the feeding of trainees, effective this academic year.”

The Association also said payment of teacher trainees’ allowance will soon commence adding that per arrangement, the allowance for three months will be paid to eligible government Colleges of Education (CoE) teacher trainees

“We are pleased to inform you that the allowance payment has been confirmed and will be disbursed this
week. As per the arrangement, the allowance for three months will be paid to eligible teacher trainees,” it said.