Scrap trainee allowance & increase admission quota – CoE to govt
The principal of St. John Bosco College of Education, Joseph Amikuzuno following the limited enrollment of WASSCE graduates into Colleges of Education (CoE) has called on the central government to cancel the trainee allowance.
Using his outfit as an example, he said over 3,000 applicants were seeking admission into St. John Bosco’s College of Education but for the quota placed on admission by the government, they were able to admit only 300 applicants.
“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.
In line with the principal, education think tank – Africa Education Watch has called on the central government to immediately remove the government Education College admission quota for the 2022/2023 academic year.
In a social media post sighted by AcademicWeek.com, the Executive Director of EduWatch, Kofi Asare said the College entry quota is a tactic to reduce the intake of students into various teacher education institutions over the allowance.
He said it makes no sense for the government to invest millions of cedis to expand Colleges of Education to admit more students only to impose an admission quota to limit the intake of Free Senior High School WASSCE graduates.
The call for trainee allowance cancellation comes after the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) said a limit has been placed on admission for level 100 students to be admitted at public Colleges of Education for the 2022/2023 academic year.
“Please be informed that the allocation cannot be varied and must strictly be adhered to. For the avoidance of doubt, payment of feeding grants and trainees allowance will be guided by these numbers,” GTEC said in a press release.
