NSS deploys 65,000 personnel to districts to augment labour force

Koforidua, Aug. 10, GNA - The National Service Secretariat (NSS), in

collaboration with the National Volunteer Service (NVS) are deploying a

total of 65, 000 personnel this year to districts across the country to

augment the labour force particularly, in the area of teaching.

Twenty-five thousand out of the number are under the NVS who had

already completed a year's national service, whiles the remaining 40,000

personnel had just completed tertiary education programme.

About 75 percent of the numbers are being sent to the classrooms.

The Executive Director of the NSS, Mr Vincent Senam Kuagbenu,

disclosed this when he paid a courtesy call on the Eastern Regional

Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, as part of his official visit to district

directors of the NSS in the region.
He announced that from next year, newly trained doctors and nurses

would be roped into the NSS to ensure that after completion of all sectors

of their training, the mandatory one year service are achieved.

Mr Kuagbenu mentioned some of the challenges facing the scheme as

refusal of personnel to accept postings to the rural areas and lack of

community support in terms of provision of accommodation to personnel

posted to those areas.
He therefore appealed to the Regional Minister and for that matter all

Coordinating Councils to impress upon Municipal and District Chief

Executives (MDCE's) to complement the service volunteerism by

ensuring that personnel had easy access to accommodations and other

facilities where available.
Later at a meeting with the district directors, Mr Kuagbenu warmed

that his administration would not tolerate anyone who would connive with

influential parents to post their wards to banks and other areas of their

choice.
He said the scheme was restructuring itself to improve the condition of

service for the staff including the institution of awards for further studies

and urged them to ensure equity and social justice in the performance of

their duties.
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo on his part suggested to the director that in

deriving a maximum benefit from the scheme, personnel should be put in

areas where their mandatory service would propel them to become well

vest in national leadership issues to augment the decentralization process.

In that direction he suggested that the NSS should consider attaching

service personnel to DCE's, so that they had a feel of leadership at the

grassroots and first hand knowledge in the decentralization concept,

adding that, although the government was not interested in personal

assistants that concept would be beneficial to national development.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo explained that, that concept could be used to train

leaders for the decentralized system and successive governments would

not be found wanting when selecting people to those positions.

He assured the Executive Director of his own support and that of the

Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), to ensure that all those posted to

the rural areas had accommodation.
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo also said he would ensure that personnel accepted

posting to deprived communities, especially Afram Plains where teachers

were needed badly.
GNA