Over ten thousand teacher trainees of various Colleges of Educations across the country would have to feed themselves effective May 8, 2022.
This comes after the National Conference of Principals of Colleges of Education – Ghana (PRINCOF) says it cannot continue feeding the trainees due to huge debts owed by the government.
A letter dated Tuesday, April 19, 2022, signed by the Executive Secretary of PRINCOF, Dr. Harriet Naki Amui, and sent to the Minister of Education directed that teacher trainees must start to fund their own feeding from May 8, if funds are not made available to them.
This directive has been necessitated in response to the inability of Colleges of Education to make payments for food items supplied to them.
The statement said food suppliers continued delivering supplies to these Colleges of Education for months without payment but they have finally withdrawn their services till they receive the monies owed them.
“Most Colleges now have food items that can last only one week if students are to be provided with three (3) meals a day,” PRINCOF said.
The PRINCOF statement therefore made the following four proposals which take effect on April 23.
“Trainee teachers will be provided with two meals, breakfast and supper only for one week, from April 23 to April 30, 2022, that, Trainee teachers from May 1 to May 8, 2022 shall be given lunch only, that, after May 8, trainee teachers would be asked to provide their own meals until their feeding allowances have been paid and finally, “food vendors will be encouraged to increase the quantity of daily meals they cook for sale to students”.
The statement added that “all these measures are meant to ensure that there is no disruption of the academic calendar”.
