TTAG & ATTRICONS Demand Motivational Packages

The President of the Teacher Trainee Association of Ghana and the Association of Teacher Trainees in Colleges of the Northern Sector, TTAG-ATTRICONS Solomon Mbugri Ndedaug says the scrapping of teacher trainee allowance will have a negative consequence on the educational system in the northern sector. He justified that the SSNIT loan which has come to replace the teacher trainee allowance is mere rhetoric due to its limited access to students of the three regions of the north where poverty is endemic. Mr. Mbugri said this during the Association�s 20th Annual Delegates� General Assembly at Wa in the Upper West Region. The Annual Delegates� General Assembly which was on the theme �Prioritizing Teacher Education in a changing society, the impact of a national educational policy� was used to officially launch the 20th anniversary celebration of the Association. Mr. Mbugri said the Association is grappling with numerous challenges as in finance and unstable management due to poor government policies. He called on the Ministry of Education to introduce more motivational packages as well as increase the number of training colleges in the northern sector to address the imbalances of teacher/ pupil ratio confronting quality education in the north. Mr Mbugri urged the government to formulate a national educational policy with strict legislative backing to make its implementation efficient and effective. In an address the Upper West Regional Vice Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Teachers Saaka Adams said the abolition of teacher trainee allowance will have an adverse implication on education because it will make the teaching profession unattractive to the youth. Mr Adams admonished members of the TTAG-ATTRICONS to do well to identify their weaknesses as well as build on their strengths and come out with policies that will promote the educational sector for the benefit of all. In a message, the Regional Director of Education Iddrisu Mahama said enactment of the National Educational Policy will go a long way to reduce political interference in the educational sector. The policy according to him will have the potential to whip up the interest of stakeholders to effectively participate in the delivery of education.