Policy Feedback and the Politics of Teacher Trainee Allowance Reform in Ghana

Teacher trainee allowance, a statutory cash transfer support to persons training to become professional teachers in Ghana has been on the social policy reform agenda of successive governments. Notwithstanding the saliency of the policy in recent political campaigns, there is presently no original research that explains why the policy has been resistant to change. Drawing on historical institutionalist literature, this paper explains why attempts by successive governments to reform teacher trainee allowance in Ghana has been unsuccessful. The inability of policy makers to undertake planned reforms is puzzling because Africa is perceived as a place where policies are less resistant to change due to strong presidencies as well as the influential role of powerful and resourceful transnational actors. Drawing on insights from the literature on policy feedback, the paper analyzes the specific mechanisms that have reinforced the original institutional logic of the trainee allowance policy, and it shares ideas about options for endogenous path departing policy change.