Wassa West District registers 910 people for Youth Employment

Tarkwa (W/R), Dec. 6, GNA 96 The Wassa West District has registered 910 people for the Youth Employment Programme, its Coordinator, Mr William Bosco Narkaah, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on Tuesday.

He said so far 314 people had been posted to various communities as community education teaching assistants while 60 had been registered as Community Health Aids and will be trained early next year. Some 250 people have also been posted to Agriculture while 25 have been deployed to the Environmental Health Unit. Mr Narkaah said vacancies still existed in the education unit because some of the teachers had gone on either voluntary retirement or study leave, while others deserted their posts or refused posting to villages.

He suggested that the programme should make room for more intakes of teachers to enhance quality teaching and learning. Mr Narkaah said there were a lot more people were engaged by Chairmen of School Management Committees (SMC) or Headteachers as community teachers and were being paid by the communities according to their financial capability.

He said many of the people being engaged as community teachers faced an initial problem of transportation and accommodation and suggested that henceforth they should rather be posted to communities closer to them or where they live.

He said those registered for the Agricultural sector, would be engaged around the major farming season when government would supply them farming inputs to help farmers.

Under the agricultural sector some 28 applicants have been trained to undertake fish farming in the district. He said his office would liaise with the University of Mines and Technology to train some people in Information Communication and Technology (ICT) for them to become computer literates. He said the workload was more than the strength of one person and pleaded for additional staff in the programme's office, in addition to providing office equipment.