Mahama makes a U-turn on the cancellation of Teacher and Nursing Trainees’ allowances

Former President John Dramani Mahama who justified his decision of cancelling the Teacher and Nursing Trainees allowances while in government has backtracked on his decision.

In December last year, the Flagbearer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) disclosed that the reason behind his decision to cancel nursing training allowances was to use the money to build more health infrastructure.

John Mahama was criticized by the then-opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) for cancelling allowances of teachers and Nursing Trainees promising to reinstate the allowances when given power.

Speaking to students of Sefwi Wiaso Nurses Training College, John Dramani Mahama explained the reason behind the decision to replace the allowances with loans.

He says his government realized it had to take several years for nurses who graduate to be posted to their various stations.

However, if more infrastructure was built, there would be more spaces to be occupied by nurses and more jobs created.

“When we tried to explain the reason why we were replacing your allowances with student loans, people did not understand us. What we wanted to do was build more CHPS compounds, more hospitals, and more health facilities, more health centres so that when you come out you can get work to do that was our intention.

“But some people took political advantage of it and said they would continue to pay the allowances because they could.

“Today I’m told that those in their 2nd year have never seen their allowances. My younger sisters and younger brothers, I’m standing on your behalf here to remind Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia that the students of Sefwi Wiaso Nursing Training College say that they are waiting for their allowances because you promised you could pay,” he said while addressing the students.

Speaking to the media in Bolgatanga on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, Mahama disclosed that he will not scrap the allowance if he becomes President in 2025.

“We will keep the status quo for now because, under the student loan scheme, nurses do not qualify. Therefore, we need to make some amendments before we can transition them to student loans. So, we’ll maintain the current system until we can make the necessary changes to move everyone to a student loan system. We are calling it the enhanced student loan because we need to increase the amount to make it meaningful for students. Once a student gets a job, we must have a mechanism to start deducting payments to support the next batch of students.”

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