Kofi Asari, executive director of African Education Watch, has urged the government to eliminate the payment of allowances for trainee teachers.
Kofi Asare described the payment of allowances to trainees in public education colleges as wasteful expenses that should be abolished with immediate effect.
According to the Executive Director of African Education Watch, the government is spending too much on higher education to the detriment of pre-university education, a situation that creates a gap in the development of basic schools.
Addressing participants at a roundtable discussion organized by the Citizens’ Alliance in Accra, Mr Asari said that much of the expenditure that has been made in the education sector needs to be reconsidered.
I think the budget fails to appreciate that there are some wasteful expenses that have to leave the education space, especially the allowance for a trainee teacher. The government has reiterated that it intends to spend C$241 million in 2023 to feed adult trainees who are in higher education and entitled to student loans just like other higher education students.
The government should reduce wasteful expenditures and spend more on the vulnerable, we also donate and see more enhanced spending on free compulsory basic education.
In a similar development, Africa Education Watch has asked the Parliament of Ghana not to approve the allocation of GHS 1.8 billion to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), a major facility to finance education infrastructure in Ghana.
The sharp drop in appropriations for 2023 raises serious concerns about the formula used to cap the GETFund in the 2023 budget, and whether this is in accordance with the Appropriate Capping and Reorganization Act.