Former Education Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has revealed that plans were set in motion during his tenure to gradually phase out teacher trainee allowance payments, describing the policy as unsustainable in the long term.
In an exclusive interview with EIB’s Serwaa Amihere, Dr. Opoku Prempeh explained that teacher trainee allowances would eventually have to end as part of a broader reform aimed at changing how teacher education is financed.
“As a minister, I had already planned how we would exit training allowances. Previously, when you enrolled as a teacher trainee, you were placed on the Ghana Education Service salary payroll, so you received an allowance even while in school,” he said.
His remarks come amid renewed calls for the cancellation of teacher and nursing trainee allowances, following government plans to replace these allowances with student loans. However, Dr. Opoku Prempeh emphasized that such reforms must be implemented gradually to prevent hardship for trainees.
Additionally, he advocated for scrapping diploma certificates for teachers, stating, “My next move was to make sure that we cancel what we call diploma education in this country, so that every teacher now is not just a diploma holder. They won’t have to be absent from their classrooms trying to top up to degrees. Now, every teacher coming out is a degree graduate.”
