‘No national service, no employment’ – Napo warns trainee teachers

The Minister of Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, has warned teacher trainees that they will not be permanently employed unless they undertake the mandatory national service.

According to him, the trainee teachers are no different from nurses, doctors and lawyers and must therefore do their national service.

“When we say your induction and probation period is the same as your national service period, why don’t you want to do it? Nurses do it, doctors do it, lawyers do it. Everybody who has gone through the tertiary system does national service,” Dr. Opoku Prempeh said while speaking at the launch of a World Bank report in Accra Thursday.

His comments come after a massive demonstration was staged by some trainee nurses on Wednesday.

Members of the Teacher Trainee Association of Ghana (TTAG), in collaboration with the Inter College Network (ICON) protested against the Ghana Education Service and the Education Ministry over the decision to ‘force’ them to undertake national service.

The protestors marched from the Obra Spot near the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and ended at the Hearts of Oak Park in Accra, holding placards with various inscriptions.

Some of the placards read: "Thanks for Allowance but post us now", “You gave us an allowance and so what?", "Education sector is in limbo", "Napo must go", "NPP, we are tired of promises; post us now", "NPP has betrayed us, GES post us now", amongst others.

The trainee teachers maintained that they will resist any attempt to compel them to do the national service since they have already done the mandatory teaching practice.

However, the Education Minister has warned that anyone who refuses to undertake the national service will not be employed by the government.

“Everybody is going to do it. It is a fight I’ll love because you have to tell me why you are better than somebody else. If you don’t do your national service, we don’t get to employ you. We are going to do it,” Dr. Opoku Prempeh stressed.