The Coalition of Schools of Hygiene students are threatening to embark on a street protest if the government fails to pay allowance arrears.
They say they have not received their trainee allowances for two years, owed since January 2023.
While others have received part of the allowances, the 2021 Ho School of Hygiene certificate batch have not received any funds for the entire 2023 period.
The students, who raised concerns about potential long-term unemployment, say engagements with the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources revealed delays due to a lack of financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance.
According to the Coalition’s General Secretary, Emmanuel Awuku, students are facing challenges and called for posting for batches yet to be deployed.
“Tempers are rising among School of Hygiene trainees across the country and the urge to resort to a massive demonstration at the presidency and the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources is getting to its peak by the day.
“School of Hygiene trainees are also health trainees and remain constitutionally eligible to receive our trainee allowances, but it seems stakeholders are using technicalities to push our people off the scheme of trainee allowance, and we haven’t received an allowance for two years now, and some have even completed without receiving a Cedi as trainee allowances.”
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Students of Schools of Hygiene were not included in the category of trainees who had their monthly allowances restored by the government.
This compelled the principal of the School of Hygiene at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Raphael Komla Nutsukpui, in 2018 to call on the government to restore the allowances of the trainees.
In 2017, about 200 students of the School of Hygiene staged a demonstration on some principal streets in Accra to demand the restoration of their allowances.
The demonstration, which began from the Obra spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, ended at the Hearts of Oak Park near the Arts Centre.
The restoration of nurses and teacher-trainee allowance was topical during the 2016 elections, as the Mahama administration scrapped the allowances, arguing that they are better channelled into improving infrastructure in the various training colleges to increase access.
The students were asked to apply for loans from the Students Loan Trust to finance their education.
But President Nana Akufo-Addo, during the campaign for the 2016 elections, promised to restore the allowance, which was a source of income for underprivileged students.
When it was restored in September 2017, the students received GH₵400 monthly, with the annual budget pegged at GH ₵232million.