By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has called for the immediate cancellation of teacher trainee allowances, describing them as wasteful and inefficient use of public funds.
Mr Asare argued that the money spent on the allowances could instead be used to employ about 400 teachers annually.
Speaking in an interview on The Agenda on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, he said the government spent about GH¢203 million on teacher trainee allowances in 2025.
According to him, Ghana must begin to reassess long-standing education policies that consume significant public funds without delivering optimal outcomes for the education system.
“The allowance is wasteful, so let’s put it aside. We won’t discuss it again. Everybody knows it is wasteful. That amount (GH¢203 million) can hire about 400 teachers every year, which is the equivalent of paying close to 400 teachers’ salaries annually,” Mr Asare said.
He also criticised the payment of allowances to nursing trainees, which he estimated at about GH¢500 million annually.
Beyond allowances, the EduWatch Executive Director called for major reforms in Ghana’s teacher recruitment system.
He proposed replacing automatic employment after graduation with a demand-driven recruitment model based on actual vacancies in schools and districts.
He said that in countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada, teacher recruitment is done through district-level advertisements for specific vacancies, rather than central postings.
“In advanced countries, if there is a teacher vacancy, an advert is made at the district level for a specific school. If you qualify and have the relevant subject knowledge and expertise, you apply and your employment is considered,” he said.
“The employment is specific to a particular school. It is not a case of posting teachers to the north or Greater Accra for them to find accommodation. It is demand-driven teacher employment,” he added.
Mr Asare maintained that such a system would improve efficiency, ensure better teacher placement and help address staffing gaps more effectively across the education sector.
The teacher trainee allowance policy was reintroduced to provide financial support to students in colleges of education and encourage more young people to pursue teaching careers.
