70 per cent of Ghana National Service Personnel to teach

STORY-Hannah Annor

Accra,Ghana, Oct. 6, GNA- About 70 per cent of Ghana's national service personnel for 2008/2009 have been posted to the educational sector to enhance government's effort in providing quality education, the National Service Scheme (NSS) announced on Monday.
This would help meet the shortfall in the supply of teachers in rural areas, Mr Kofi Obiri Yeboah, Executive Director of the NSS said at a news conference in Accra.
As usual, the Greater Accra region, which habours Ghana's city topped the list of postings, having 10, 988 out of the 34,500 personnel, which is the highest national posting record since the Scheme began in 1973.
Mr Yeboah therefore asked all service personnel to contact the NSS website; www.nssghana,org to check their posting and print out their appointment letters with effect from Wednesday, October 8.
He reminded personnel that national service was a call to national duty and postings must be accepted in good faith, adding " It should never be seen as a form of punishment when one is service his nation".
The NSS Executive Director also cautioned user agencies against the practice of submitting a list of preferred personnel to the NSS for posting.
He further explained that some organisations have developed the habit of going to the various tertiary institutions to conduct attitudinal test to compile a list of preferred personnel, saying that it was only the NSS that had the legal mandate for posting.
Mr Yeboah also announced an increase in the allowances of personnel from 1,250 to 1,443 and salary areas for the 2007/2008 batch.
Mr Alhassan Imoro, Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Posting Coordinator, also explained that Greater Accra had the highest posting due to the number of vacancies available within the region.
On accommodation, Mr Imoro mentioned that the NSS was liasing with the district assemblies as well civil society organisations to provide accommodation for personnel posted to remote areas.
Meanwhile, the remaining percentage of the personnel would work with the Ministries, Department and Agencies, district assemblies and the private sector.
Ashanti region will have 5640 personnel, Brong Ahafo, 2667, Central region, 2080, Eastern, 2871, Western, 2690 and 1571 for the Volta region, The Northern, Upper West and Upper East would also receive 1871,710 and 698 personnel in that order.