Over 2,000 Agric students picket at MoFA

Over two thousand Agric trainees are converging at the premises of the Agric ministry to protest government’s failure to redeem a campaign promise to restore their allowances.

The protest by the students from the five Agric training colleges in the country is coming a day after government launched the restoration of the nursing trainee allowances amid fanfare at Sunyani.

Students of the Kwadaso Agric Training College took to the street on Tuesday to register their displeasure over government’s decision not to restore their trainee allowances.

In 2013, the government of former president John Mahama scrapped the payment of allowances to students of colleges of education including the Kwadaso Agric Training College — a decision that was met with grave disapproval.

But the president explained that the move was a barter for increased enrolment in colleges of education and upgrade of the status of such institutions. The cancellation of the allowances became a key element of the Akufo-Addo campaign.

However, after 10 months of being in government, the students of the Kwadaso Agric Training College are up in arms against the Akufo-Addo led administration, accusing it of shirking the pledge it made to them.

According to Stanley Mensah, a leader of the Agric trainee students, government is being selective in restoring the allowances hence their protest.

“We are not different from the Nurses neither are we different from the Teachers, so if they have restored that of these two institutions nothing stops them from restoring ours as well.We are going to be at the premises of the Agric Ministry until we also receive our share,” he noted.