Naana Opoku-Agyeman: NDC Replaced Teacher Trainee Allowance With Loans | Politics

Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, former President John Mahama’s Election 2020 Running Mate, has reiterated the assertion that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) did not scrap the teacher trainee allowance rather replaced it with loans.

She explained that the move was to ensure the students had access to more money for their upkeep while under training and the loans that were granted the teacher trainees were twice the amount that was given to them as allowances.

“Some persons have claimed in different media programmes that the allowance was scrapped and monies due the teacher trainees were withheld from them but I need to emphasize that we never scrapped the allowance rather replaced it as loans.

“We never took anybody’s money from them, all those who were receiving the allowance, received them till it ended and we gave them the loans that was about twice what they were getting as allowances because we thought they needed more so we never scrapped the allowance,” Prof. Opoku-Agyeman affirmed.

The subject of teacher trainee allowance has recently become topical in the media following reports that many trainees are owed allowances of more than four months which comes at a time where there are threats that teacher trainees will be forced to feed themselves over the non-payment of feeding allowance by the government.

However, the government has since announced the release of allowances to cater to the feeding of the trainees.