The Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG) has expressed worry over delays in the payment of allowances for beneficiaries across the country.

According to members of the Association, their monthly stipends have not been released for the past seven months, in spite of several promptings to the authorities.

In an interview on JoyNews’ The Pulse, Tuesday, the National President of TTAG, Jonathan Dzunu, said the situation is equally affecting the funding of colleges as principals suffer to mobilise revenue to finance their activities.

“I don’t know why the are not coming out to say it, because they will tell you feeding grant is not coming and we’ve exhausted our reserves and we don’t have anything.

“For seven months now, allowances have not been paid. How will the students take care of themselves and how will the principals feed the students, how?” he asked.

He highlighted that the situation has worsened the plight of many students who are finding it difficult to feed on campus, especially after the Colleges of Education Non-Teaching Staff Association of Ghana (CENTSAG) declared an indefinite nationwide strike over service conditions.

This has caused many students to leave campuses in search of food, Mr Dzunu disclosed.

“I have been informed that the Minister of Education has done everything possible for the allowance to be paid, but there is some delay from the Ministry of Finance and we are finding it difficult to understand why.

“What is making it very difficult for us as trainees to understand the whole thing is that; you know when allowance was cancelled some years back, and we were fighting the whole system over why the allowances were cancelled, we had support from government, which was then in opposition, they supported us.

“So, we don’t understand why they are in power now and the situation is getting worse,” he added.

When asked what the next line of action would be, Jonathan Dzunu said as leadership of the group, “all options,” including a demonstration are on the table to get the concerns addressed.