Teachers and Trainees Advocacy have always taken it upon themselves to labour against inappropriate measures in education until change is effected to the convenience of their clients.[irp posts=”2181″ name=”TTA Congratulates All Newly Trained Teachers”]
We are aggrieved and not in support of the fees charged for continuing students in Colleges of Education to pay. Almost the entire population of teacher trainees in the country are indignant and perplexed upon being notified by their Colleges on the amount they are to pay as fees for the 2018/2019 academic year.
They describe the fees as exorbitant and for that reason, TTA are calling on the Conference of Principals of Colleges of Education (PRINCOF) to reweigh the charged amount as fees to be paid by the continuing Students of Colleges of Education this academic year.
Below are the spell outs of the charged amount as fees to be paid by teacher trainees in the first semester of this academic year;[irp posts=”1430″ name=”Hon. Okyere Darko Emmanuel;The Public Relations Manager of (TTAG_ASHBA) Congratulates All Mentees.”]
▪Level 200 students are to pay: GH₵1,567.00
▪Level 300 students are to pay: GH₵976.00.
NB:
â–ªThe above figures exclude feeding fees for the semester according to these students.
â–ªThe charged fees may vary in amount from college to college and the above figures could be the.
Breakdown of the feeding fees and how it is paid:
As per the evidence we have as a concerned outfit, we are clear that the amount charged for feeding fee per student to pay in a single semester is exactly GH₵784.00 but it is of the know that this amount shall be deducted from the allowance of these students as computed below;
GH₵196.00 shall be deducted for each month of the four months in a single semester as the feeding fee;
GH₵196.00 * 4 = GH₵784.00; What this means is that, the students are not supposed to pay any direct amount as feeding fee again in any College of Education in the country.
We are tempted to believe that the teacher trainees are indirectly made to pay for feeding fee again as we perused the amount charged for this academic year. We will therefore lay more emphasis to confirm our belief as we make a detailed analysis of the level 200s fees; They are to pay GH₵1567.00 which is approximately GH₵1600.00. Below are the components of the fees;
Examination fee= GH₵400.00
SRC levy = GH₵100.00
Hall levy = GH₵100.00
College Charges = GH₵957.00.
Clearly, one will ask that what and what amount to the GH₵ 957.00 to be paid as college charges; this is what TTA and the majority of the worried trainee teachers across the length and breadth of the country are asking.[irp]
TTA wish to disclose that; GH₵1,567.00+GH₵ 784.00 will accrue to GH₵ 2351.00. So this is what level 200 students are to pay for just a single semester of this academic year. And we go on to ask why?
All things being equal, trainee teachers on campus receive for the two semesters allowance of GH₵1600.00 for the academic year;thus, GH₵200.00 * 8 after feeding fees and TTAG dues have been deducted. Our noble fraternity have the conviction that, one will not be wrong should he or she concludes that the entirety of the allowance the students receive for the academic year will not even be enough to settle for this aforementioned single semester’s charges. In the nutshell, two semester allowance cannot settle for a single semester’s fees.
NB:
Some colleges after levying students to pay for hall dues, again levy them to pay for residential dues. This is a total cheat.
The Institute of Education: UCC
Over the last few years, Trainee Teachers in the country have for several times implored your fraternity to reduce the amount of GH₵360.00 that was charged as examination fees per semester but to no avail. We hoped that if the amount cannot be reduced then it should be maintained but to suddenly increase it to GH₵400.00 is unfair.
Again as per our checks, the current Level 300 students who will very soon commence their Teaching practice have been charged GH₵320.00 for only 2 papers not forgetting that these same students will again pay for GH₵220,00 as licensure examination fee.
We have it on record that, the newly trained teachers paid not more than GH₵ 500.00 as fixed charges for the second semester but even with that, some students still owe the Colleges.
According to the above troubling pointed out facts, we wish to call on the Government of Ghana, MoE, PRINCOF and the various stakeholders in education, to intervene in this issue to bring about a convenient change on the bill and also readdress certain issues in the CoE so that the ordinary trainee teacher can live withing his or her means. Exorbitant fees charged by Colleges should not become the reason one will drop out of college.
Antwi Karikari Patrick
National Convener-TTA,
Teacher Trainees’ Education Analyst +233249557676/+233502974884
Azasu Samuel Atsu
Director of Publicity-TTA (Ag) +233540549315
Cc: The Minister of Education
The Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education
The Chairperson, Parliamentary Select Committee on Education
The Executive Secretary, NTC
The Chairman, GES Council
The Director General, GES
The Chairperson, PRINCOF
The General Secretary, GNAT
The President, NAGRAT
The President, CCT
The General Secretary, TEWU
The National Teaching Council,NTC
All College Principals
All Students’ Affairs Tutors, CoE
The President, NUGS
The President, TTAG
All SRC Presidents, CoE
All Media Houses-GH
