Yaw Osafo-Maafo, a senior presidential advisor, has promised that the government’s allowances for trainees in colleges of education won’t be eliminated.
The notion of eliminating teacher trainee allowances as part of the IMF conditionality has drawn criticism from many people.
Speaking during the Akropong College of Education’s 175th anniversary celebration, Yaw Osafo-Maafo highlighted that all allowances will be kept.
“I know that the difficulty in the economic landscape, which has resulted in the government signing up for a programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), may cause you some concerns. But none of the allowances introduced in the teaching profession will be affected by our programme with the IMF. If there are any difficulties in prompt payments, it is coming from our own mobilization of resources and not from the IMF,” Mr. Osafo-Maafo clarified.
On May 17, the IMF’s Executive Board approved Ghana’s request for a $3 billion bailout to help the nation’s faltering economy.
On May 19, Ghana received the first installment of the $3 billion rescue package from the IMF, totaling $600 million.
