National Service Personnel To Teach In Rural Areas

Six out every 10 National service persons will now be posted to rural and deprived communities to teach during the year 2001/2002 service period. The rest who are mostly professionals will be posted to the various district assemblies, which will assign them specific duties. About one thousand other Service personnel will be stationed at the Universities as teaching assistants.

The acting Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Mr. K. C. Appiah-Num, who made this known explained that in all, 16,000 graduates and diplomates have been listed for the national service program, adding that an amount of ?392 billion cedis will be required to support the program in the service year.

Mr. Appiah-Num explained that the program is meant to supplement government’s efforts at addressing the manpower and development needs of the rural areas, in particular, and also to help orientate the service personnel,to acquire a broader national exposure.

“ At present, there is a very strong demand for teachers in the rural areas” he added. Mr. Appiah-Num said apart from the private schools, the National Service Secretariat will not readily honour requests from private organizations for candidates of their own choice as was done in the past.

Rather, the secretariat will study such requests meticulously and only honour them if they will serve a specific purpose. End-user organisations such as information technology firms, banks and construction companies, who request for the services of National Service persons will be expected to pay the, will be expected to pay their allowances, in addition to a 20 percent “ commitment fee” to the service secretariat.

“ We will not allow the private companies to disrupt the smooth implementation of the service program”, he stated. Mr. Appiah-Num said a substantial number of the service persons who graduated, as lawyers will also be posted to the Attorney General’s Department while the District Assemblies benefit immensely from the service of engineers. He said this years postings will be ready by the end of this month.