Education Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has touted the abolishing of the three months’ pay policy by the Akufo-Addo administration.
Speaking at the weekly Nation Building Updates to highlight the importance of teachers in achieving high-quality education in the country, under the theme; “The Teacher at the Center of Quality Education”, he noted that the policy led to some outstanding legacy arrears.
“We have abolished the three months’ pay policy killer. It is that three months’ pay policy killer that led to legacy arrears that president Akufo-Addo has been paying only for teachers. Every other profession was not paid, only the teachers because he wanted to respect and regard and recognize teachers.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh among other things, also admitted the payment of ninety percent of the arrears with the remaining monies to be paid in due time.
“We have paid over ninety percent. We do acknowledge that some have not been paid, what we have said is that those who have not been paid… we will make arrangements and pay.
“Just like the professional teacher allowance, you have to be validated because not everybody on the payroll qualifies. So, you have to send your documents through your districts and we will pay. We want to pay, we are ready to pay to fulfill that obligation by the time you take your thumb and vote number one”.
Commenting on the much debated teacher training allowance, he stated that government has gone the extra mile in doubling the payment of the allowance which was cancelled under the previous administration.
“We have reinstated the teacher training allowance. We have not only maintained the book and research allowance, we have increased the research component by 200%, from 500 cedis to 1500 cedis and as we speak, the teachers union in the tertiary education space, UTAG, is seating with the fair wages to conclude on their condition of service”.
On August 18, 2020, George Opare Addo, the National Youth Organizer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) “apologized” for a decision made by the Mahama-led administration to scrap both teacher and nursing trainees’ allowances.
He admitted that the decision by former President John Dramani Mahama was unpopular.
According to him, the then NDC administration abolished the teacher- trainee allowances after training colleges were upgraded to tertiary institutions, indicating the flagbearer will restore the allowance programme once he wins the December elections.
“The NDC government was spending GH¢950 on teacher trainees. And we were looking at issues of equity since they were upgraded to tertiary institutions.
“So we wanted to migrate them unto the student loan trust fund. Everybody has the right to change his mind, so there’s nothing wrong if former President Mahama believes the decision was unpopular. If he comes he will restore it because it was an unpopular decision and we apologize.”
