The Ghana Education Service (GES) has conceded a gap in communication resulted in Saturday’s widespread agitations over allowances for teachers undergoing training for the implementation of a new basic school curriculum. According to Prof Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, Director-General of the GES, his outfit has paid the teachers ¢8 for food and ¢50 for transportation but another 50, which is taxable, might have triggered the tension. The anger was over the payment of ¢50 as the allowance for the training program.  The teachers, from Greater Accra, Central, Northern, Ashanti and Eastern regions, said they felt short-changed because they were told to expect ¢100. JoyNews’ Eastern Regional Correspondent Edwin Kofi Siaw reported that in Upper West Akim the training at Adieso SHS came to an abrupt end after learning they will receive ¢50. Ashanti regional correspondent Ohemeng reported teachers protest at Juabeng SHS, Opoku Ware, Adventist SHS and Ejisuman SHS. At Accra Academy in the Greater Accra region, a video posted on Facebook showed teachers standing outside the classrooms rejecting the amount. Prof Amankwa, speaking on JoyNews Prime with Komla Adom, explained that, “our communication on this issue did not go down well enough with them so the idea once they saw that we’ve indicated ¢50 [transportation], ¢50 allowance for most people they don’t even know that once you say allowance then half is taxed.” “Then once you say you are not going to take tax out of some government money that is allowance, then you have to go and ask for tax exemption so that is what has brought the issue but subsequently we’ve communicated this to them and we have also apologized for challenges that they have with that,” he added. The Director-General of the GES noted that, “So indeed they are supposed to have that ¢50 as their allowance, which is taxable, but their union have suggested that we give them the ¢50 instead taxing because if we tax the ¢50 – 20% tax – they will be left with ¢40,” and due to that they have put in a request through the Education Ministry to the Finance Ministry to get a tax exemption. That process, he noted, would take about two weeks to complete.