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