Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has said over 52, 000 trainees will benefit from the teacher trainees allowance that has been restored by the NPP government.
“Government restored the teacher training allowance this year. Funds were released for the payment of all trainees in public colleges. A projected number of over 52000 will benefit from their allowances in the 2018 budget…” he noted.
The erstwhile Mahama administration scrapped the payment of the allowances in the 2013/2014 academic year and replaced it with loans from the SLTF, arguing that it would increase enrollment in the various colleges of education and reduce the financial burden on the government.
However, the NPP, during its 2016 election campaign, insisted that the country still needed more teachers and nurses and pledged to introduce the allowances.
With this, recalling the restoration of the allowance in September for about 45,000 teacher trainees in 41 public colleges of education, the Finance Minister delivering the 2018 budget in Parliament assured the citizenry that the numbers will shoot up to cover over 52,000 trainees with regards to the budget.
He however indicated that, “The ministry will introduce a regulation to check the setting up of public and private universities…” he said.
