Exposed:TTAG-EGA President ‘reveals’ the Political ‘Lies’ of NPP,NDC Over the future of Colleges of Education in Ghana

TO THE PUBLIC:

ISSUES RELATING TO COLLEGES OF EDUCATION

Most Ghanaians tend to be doing political groupings anytime a concerned person speaks about a pressing national issue. I’m not in anyway speaking with political spectacles because I’m a member of a non-politically influenced Association which seeks the betterment of Teacher Trainees.

My heart is saddened anytime I hear politicians using our educational system as a political target for campaining. I have heard a political party giving lectures about the restoration of Trainees allowance when they come to power. For me, it is a debasement of colleges of education as a target for political power.

The President of the Republic of Ghana and his entourage have tried giving a good picturesque of Colleges of Education(Formerly Teacher Training Colleges) on numerous platforms which is undoubtedly and realistically the opposite. The Colleges of Education, from my perspective, have seen its worst state now.

The following are some of the issues the President keeps on misinforming Ghanaians about. I’m ever ready to defend these truth I have laid out anywhere I will be called to in this democratic dispensation.

1. INCREMENT IN INTAKE: The President keeps on telling the public that intake has been increased. How can you increase intake without making better provisions for it? Students sleep on the floor like ants in most Colleges of Education. Students have to pack their luggages and buggages on the corridor because their rooms have become congested and have even restricted movement in dormitories. Another unfortunate issue is that, in some colleges, students don’t even get enough desks to sit on for lectures and for eating at the dinning hall. This is never the better increment our education system is calling for. If increment has taken effect because so many SHS leavers want to be in college and there are vacant classrooms at the basic school level, why not create more ministeries because so many qualified politicians want to be ministers and there is also the need for its creation?

The president refuses to add that, last year, only few SHS leavers bought the admission forms because College of Education has lost its attractiveness. There had to be re-admission last year with the least acceptable grade droping from C6 to D7 so that many people can apply.

The public must know that, either the government or institute or both have deviced a means to withdraw a good number of Trainees before they complete schooling to obviously reduce the number of Trainees to a least number to be employed after completion.

Previously, the number of referal that call for a student’s withdrawal was six(6) (representing 12 credit hours). It has now been reduced from 6 to only 1 refferal(represnting 2 credit hours) right after the implementation of the so called “increment in intake” policy. Now, lets judge it ourselves. Is it an increment in intake or masterminded means to decieve Ghanaians or for college officials to get more money from admission forms sold or school fees paid?

2. THE REPLACEMENT OF ALLOWANCE WITH STUDENT LOAN SCHEME: It is right in the eyes of the President to take his time to coin his words very well and make it look as if allowance wasn’t scrapped but was swapped to Student Loan Scheme. Whether swapped or scrapped, allowance has been taken away because students have to pay back the loan with compounded interest after taking it. Is it still genuinely swapped or scrapped?

I wish the President can still tell Ghanaians that, because his administration seeks to create equity among tertiary institutions, he is chanelling the allowances of nursing trainees, police trainees, agric and etc into Student Loan Trust Fund. That would’ve clearly spelt out the equity he is chanting for because they are all diploma awarding institutions.

It will interest you to know that, the amount given to a Trainee on the Student Loan Scheme, for a whole year can never pay for a semester fee.
I think Ghana has come far as a country and we must not politicize our education system but rather call a spade a spade.

The amount given to a student on the loan scheme ranges from GhC300 to GhC800, meanwhile, trainees pay more than GhC1200 every semester as school fees alone. You and I are witneses to the fact that there are two semesters in a year, therefore every Trainee pays not less than GhC 2400 every year of which the Student Loan Trust cannot even cater for half of it. It is obvious that Teacher Trainees even pay more fees than regular students in the public universities meanwhile the President keeps on talking about equity.

3. COLLEGES OF EDUCATION AS DEGREE AWARDING INSTITUTIONS: The President also mentions that Trainees are awarded degree instead of Diploma in Basic Education. Well, maybe this is also in the pipeline as politicians usually say. For me, as a Trainee, I have never offered a degree course since the inception of my programme in DBE and I have barely two months to leave college as a diploma holder. Mr. President, we have come far as a nation. This act of public deception will never help a developing country like Ghana. Trainees are never awarded degree in education after completion. We are awarded DIPLOMA IN BASIC EDUCATION(DBE)

4. RESTRICTIONS IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION: He keeps on telling the public that Trainees are no more under restrictions as it used to be, better still, like those in SHS. I want to put on record that every Teacher Trainee puts on uniform just like SHS students, does the grounds work, is punished and takes exeat before leaving campus just like SHS students.The recognition of Student Leadership(SRC) is nothing to write home about. Unless the president comes to tell Ghanaians that the abolition of the restrictions in colleges are yet to be implemented, he must desist from telling Ghanaians that restrictions in colleges of education is a thing of the past.

5. PART PAYMENT OF FEEDING GRANT ARREARS: The government did well in engaging in a good public awareness creation that the feeding grant arrears has been paid. The public must know that only part of it was paid. The government still owes a semester outstanding feeding grant arrears to be paid to Teacher Trainees of which we have no idea when that money will be paid.

6. OUT SEGMENT: The deputy minsiter in charge of tertiary promised an arrangement as a relief for those on the out-segment program, as at now, nothing has been heard from the Ministry of Education. I’m sure in future they might tell Ghanaians that they catered for those on out-segment since they have proven beyond doubt that they can simply decieve the public. Students must not be blinded with this part payment of the feeding grant.

# The members of the ruling party and any other political party would never wish that their children be in training college to go through what we are going through as Teacher Trainees. They must simply quit politicizing policies affecting colleges of education.

# I think that better conditions of service must be created for Teachers on the teaching field in order to minimize or probably do away with the act of Teachers leaving the teaching profession for better jobs, rather than spending extra money to train Teachers to fill the vacant classrooms in the basic schools.

Instead of sitting Governments deceiving Ghanaians of better training systems and the promises of restoration of allowance by the opposition party, concrete and formidable measures must be put in place to make the teaching profession an equally attractive job.

Thank you.

Asante Krobea Elvis
(President, Eastern and Greater Accra Regions of the Teacher Trainees’ Association of Ghana)
0271216878