Address food shortage in Colleges of Education —TTAG President

The National President of the Teacher Trainee Association of Ghana (TTAG), Mr Jonathan Dzunu, has urged authorities to, as a matter of urgency, address the food shortage in Colleges of Education.

He said sending over 20,000 students to campuses of Colleges on an empty stomach was a recipe for chaos and a national security threat.

His call comes at the back of the National Conference of Principals of Colleges of Education’s (PRINCOF) directive that teacher trainees should feed themselves from May 8.

According to PRINCOF, the directive was necessitated by the Colleges’ inability to make payments for food items supplied to them for months, which had forced suppliers to withdraw their services till they received the monies owed them.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), in Accra, following the announcement, Mr Dzunu said immediate steps must be taken by the authorities to have the ssue resolved.

He noted that, just as the Colleges were yet to receive any payment from the government, students had not received their allowances to be able to feed themselves.

He said it would, therefore, be impossible for the students to feed themselves because they were yet to receive their allowances.

He said: “We can’t allow our students to go to the various campuses and be starving. We cannot allow that to happen…,” he stressed.

Mr Dzunu urged the teacher trainees to continue to remain calm as the Association engaged with the relevant authorities to have the issue addressed.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education at a press briefing on Wednesday, announced that Government had released an amount of GHc67, 942,652 to the Colleges across the country to cater for the payment of food supply.