The Director of Communications for New Patriotic Party, (NPP) in the Savelugu constituency, Mr. Husein Safianu, has charged the government to approach the issue of book and research allowance proactively and with much consultation with key stakeholders.
He said the level of engagement with stakeholders in the education sector in dealing with the processes of replacing the Book and Research Allowance with the National Research Fund by government, is not enough.
The decision by government to scrap the Book and Research Allowance and replace it with a National Research Fund has raised key debates with experts in education across the country remaining divided on the matter.
While some say the lecturers deserve the allowance because without it, they cannot work, others have a position that not many lecturers use those allowances for their purpose.
The non-payment of Book and Research Allowances for the 2013/2014 academic year has resulted in POTAG going on strike for about four consecutive months leaving fate of students hanging in the balance.
Speaking to Shaibu Awudu on Might Morning Show on Thursday, Mr Hussein said “the government simply is denying the lecturers what is due them and what they need for effective teaching to go on”.
“Lecturers are doing so much for students in this country, Polytechnic lecturers, University lecturers, I was at the Tamale Polytechnic between 2002 and 2004, I saw their efforts, and I think they deserve what they are calling for. They don’t quote from one source, they research and guide students on where to go and learn”.
Mr. Suhuyini Yalaana, an NDC communication team member who was also a panel member on the same show however said, even though he agrees that teachers are supposed to be enumerated because they do a lot in taking students through education, he also thinks that considering the challenges the country is faced with in terms of the economy, the lecturers should have considered the students who are the final recipients of the decision by POTAG, thereby, engaging the government in any means possible to resolve the impasse.