The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has disclosed the government’s decision to suspend the provision of feeding allowances for teacher trainees in colleges of education across Ghana.
The announcement was made at a meeting with the principals of several Accra-based educational institutions.
Haruna Iddrisu claims that the government can no longer continue to feed teacher candidates, citing the policy’s unsustainable nature and lack of compliance with international best practices in higher education.
The Minister emphasized that the government should not be in charge of providing food for tertiary students, claiming that it was impractical for the state to continue doing so at this level of education.
Haruna Iddrisu made it clear during a meeting with the principals of Accra’s Colleges of Education that the government plans to replace the feeding program with an improved student loan program that would enable students to pay for their own living expenses, including meals.
“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.”
