Visually impaired teacher trainees in the country’s training colleges are appealing to government to exempt them from a plan to scrap allowances for teacher trainees next academic year.
Deputy Minister for Education Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said government will to replace the teacher trainee allowances with students’ loan.
The Deputy Minister also indicated that beginning next year, teacher trainees would also be fed three times by government.
However, the Ghana Blind Teachers Association says a blanket implementation of the proposed policy would increase the burden of members in colleges of education, and even force some out of school.
Nhyira FM’s Ohemeng Tawiah reports the Ashanti Regional President of the Association, George Kyeremanteng, has expressed reservation at the new policy.
According to George Kyeremanteng, most of the visually impaired teacher trainees come from poor homes and would need the allowance to buy learning aids.
“The equipments that we also use [in learning] are expensive” he said, pleading with government to reconsider the policy.