The Government has released GHS62.7 million for disbursement to the various Colleges of Education as feeding grant.

A statement from the Ministry of Education issued on Tuesday March 29 said the amount was released to the Ghana Education Trust Fund for onward disbursement to the colleges.

The announcement of the release of the funds follows a statement issued by the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) in which the students’ union urged government to pay the feeding grants of the teacher trainees across the country which have stalled since the beginning of the academic year.

NUGS said government had defaulted in the payment of feeding fees for the 2014/2015 academic year, resulting in authorities of the various Colleges of Education billing students in order to take care of their feeding needs.

“The current levels 100, 200 and 300 Teacher Trainees' feeding fees have not been paid. As at now, three separate academic semesters' feeding fees are unpaid, summing up to GHS 1,620 per trainee,” the statement said.

“This applies to the over 48,000 teacher trainees across the nation.”

NUGS has, thus, gave government an ultimatum to “refund these monies to the teacher trainees before the end of the first week of April 2016,” else they will seek other means to have their grievances resolved.

Below is the full statement from the Ministry of Education:

PRESS RELEASE

PAYMENT OF FEEDING GRANTS TO COLLEGES OF EDUCATION

The Ministry of Education wishes to confirm that funds have been released for the payment of feeding grants for trainees of the Colleges of Education.

Feeding grant arrears of 62. 7 million Ghana Cedis have been released to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) by the Ministry of Finance for onward disbursement to the public Colleges of Education.

We expect the accounts of the Colleges of Education to be credited in the next few days after which Principals will reimburse all trainees.

We wish to take this opportunity to commend management and trainees of the colleges for their patience and support throughout the processing period of the grants.

ISSUED BY THE PUBLIC RELATIONS UNIT OF THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION.