Only those who complete courses would be posted - National Service

Director

Accra, Aug 19, GNA - Mr Boniface Gambila, Director, National Service Scheme (NSS), on Wednesday reminded striking final year Higher National Diploma (HND) students that they would not be posted until they had written their final examinations.

Postings are due in November, but Mr Gambila said the National Service Act did not allow the Scheme to post any post-tertiary student, who had no documentary proof of having completed his or her course and until the HND students wrote their exams, they would not receive their postings.

"The Scheme would only deal with graduates, who have been passed out by their institutions. We have no business with non-graduates". However, the Scheme is prepared to wait for them to write their examinations before being posted, he said.

The caution has come at a time when Polytechnic students, including those in the final year and about to write their final examinations are on strike in protest against what they described as undefined position in job placement after the completion of their courses.

Mr Gambila was answering questions from Journalists after a press briefing in Accra to announce the seventh Global Conference of the International Association for National Youth Service (IANYS) on behalf of the Education, Youth and Sports Minister in Accra.

The conference, which comes off in Accra from August 23 to August 27, would attract more than 100 delegates from North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa.

Mr Gambila extolled the role of National Service Personnel in national development, especially in education and construction of physical structures for social development like schools, health centres, libraries and also their engagement in agriculture and small-scale industries.

He said 70 per cent of National Service Personnel were deployed annually to teach and thereby expanding the base of formal education at all levels.

He said the Education Sector needed about 43,000 teachers annually, from the Basic to the Secondary Levels, but there were still 16,000 vacant positions to be filled.

The shortage was more prevalent in the three Northern Regions, he said, and added National Service persons were fallen on to fill the vacancies. Mr Gambila said postings were guided by the mobility of the service persons, issue of national priority and requests of user agencies against availability of particular skills.

All professionals not posted to their areas of specialisation were sent to the Education Sector, Mr Gambila said.