Kpessa-Whyte calls for support for service personnel
The Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte, has underscored the need for collaboration between the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to find a way of accommodating service personnel posted to those areas.
He said national service persons played a critical role in filling the gap in the classroom, especially in rural deprived schools which demanded that the MMDAs and opinion leaders help to accommodate them in their communities.
The director was speaking during a familiarisation tour of some user agencies at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region last Tuesday. He also interacted with some service persons to find out their challenges.
Dr Kpessa-Whyte was accompanied by some staff of the NSS in the region.
Institutions visited
The team visited the Agomeda International Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCES), a vocational training centre and the Osudoku Senior High Technical School (OSUTEC) where they interacted with the staff including national service persons. A key issue that came up in the interactions was the difficulty in accessing accommodation in the area, a situation that had forced some of the NSS persons to commute to work from Accra.
Advice
Dr Kpessa-Whyte advised the service persons to see their challenges as an opportunity that would toughen them for the future.
“While doing your national service, look out for opportunities, especially in the area of agriculture. Take advantage of the opportunity provided by the Youth Enterprise Support (YES), Social Development Fund (SDF), and other packages to explore entrepreneurial ventures that will make you self-reliant,” he admonished.
Appeal
At the ICCES, one of the service persons, Ms Patience Quarshie, appealed to the government to help the centre to acquire tools and equipment that would enhance the practical training of the students.
The senior house master of OSUTECH, Gabriel Kwaku Molato, who spoke on behalf of the headmaster, commended the service persons for augmenting the efforts of the permanent staff of the school.
