The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has announced the government’s decision to suspend feeding allowances for teacher trainees in colleges of education across Ghana. This announcement was made during a meeting with the principals of various colleges in Accra. According to Iddrisu, the government can no longer sustain the practice of providing meals for teacher trainees, stating that the policy is unsustainable and does not align with global best practices in higher education.
The Minister emphasised that feeding tertiary students should not be the responsibility of the government, arguing that it was not feasible for the state to continue providing such support at this level of education. Addressing a meeting with the Principals of Colleges of Education, in Accra, Haruna Iddrisu made it clear that the government intends to replace the feeding programme with an enhanced student loan scheme that would empower students to cater for their own living expenses, including meals.
This transition, he noted, is a necessary step to ensure the sustainability of government spending in the educational sector while also fostering a sense of independence among teacher trainees. “There is no way you should be feeding a student at the tertiary level so we have to work out a transition from the allowance into an enhanced student loan for them to feed themselves. “But in the interim, they will still get the allowances. I cannot conceive of a student in a higher education institution being fed.”
By: Sammi Wiafe
