National service personnel, starting this year, will be made to undergo two weeks military training before moving to their various postings. This is to prepare them mentally and physically for their tasks as service persons. This was revealed by the Ashanti regional Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Mr. Kwasi Quainoo on Monday at pre-posting orientation held for students of the Kumasi polytechnic.

He speculated that about nine thousand prospective national service personnel are to be deployed this year from the Ashanti region alone.

The regional director who took the students through the NSS Act 426, 1940, said the military training component of the national service programme was initiated about eight years ago but had to be put on hold. He added that the practice of posting personnel across regions is supposed to be a tool in the fight against ethnocentrism, urging the personnel to accept postings graciously since national service is to build a work culture in them.

He urged the prospective candidates to conform to rules and regulations governing the institutions they are posted to.

Mr. Quainoo in a litany of cautions, listed evasion, desertion and self-posting aspractices that should be avoided and said that they are offences under the law and can result in prosecution.

He stated that one could however defer national service on either academic or health grounds. Exemptions from national service, he added, can be granted to persons above forty years or people who have done national service before. He emphasized the need not to confuse attachments with national service.

The process of registration for national service persons was also reiterated. Also present at the orientation were Mr. Asiedu Boafo, the Kumasi metro director and other district directors drawn from the Ashanti region.

In a related story, the national service foundation, a group of national service persons is urging prospective national service personnel to accept postings to deprived parts of the country to impart knowledge.

Mr. Adusah Poku, a trustee of the foundation states that he is undertaking his national service at Krobea –Asante Technical Institute in Sekyere –East district of the Ashanti region. He says although that district is a deprived area, things are not as bad as some make it sound. -Bernard Buachi, Kumasi.