President John Mahama has explained that allowances for teacher trainees in Colleges of Education across the country have not been scrapped, contrary to assertions that they have.

"…We are saying that we have not scrapped teacher training allowances. What we have done is like it happens in the established tertiary institutions: we have swapped teacher training allowances with student loans every student in tertiary education is entitled to have."We’ve cancelled uniforms, they used to go out with exeats, like they were still in the secondary schools; we’ve cancelled that. These are educational universities. …You can’t have your cake and eat it," the president said.

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Government's decision in 2013 to stop the payment of grants to students of colleges of education was met with disapproval.

However, president Mahama explained that it was ideal for such colleges of education, which are yet to be upgraded, to be moved unto student loan schemes enjoyed by teacher trainees in the traditional universities like the University of Education Winneba and the University of Cape Coast.

“The benefit in swapping teacher training allowances with student loans is that it allows us to abolish the quota system and make more people come into the colleges of education to get training as teachers and get jobs. And so, 60% of those who are currently in colleges of education would not be there if we were paying training allowances," the president added.