From George Ernest Asare, Kumasi
As many as 20,000 National Volunteers Service personnel will be posted to basic and second cycle schools in deprived and needy communities this academic year.
This adds up to the 46,201 posted between 2003 and 2009 in support of the Education sector to offer quality education to basic and senior high school students in the country.
Rev. Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), who made this known, noted that activities of the Volunteer teachers have not only impacted positively on the GES by increasing enrolment and enhancing punctuality among students and teachers, but had also regularised activities of teachers in the classrooms.
This, he said, had instilled discipline in schools and enhanced quality education delivery and, therefore, expressed his appreciation to the National Volunteers and assured of the GES support in their operations.
The National Volunteering Service, which started on a pilot basis in 2003 in the Upper East Region with only 53 volunteers in 21 Senior High Schools, is now run on a national scale.
In an address read on his behalf during the Sixth National Volunteer Service (NVS) review workshop in Kumasi on the theme “The teacher, an asset to quality education in Ghana: The role of National Volunteering”, Mr Bannerman–Mensah said it was important for the volunteers to be committed and time-conscious in their operations so that they would serve as role models for the communities.
He pointed out that education was considered as both an economic resource for nations and a means by which individuals advance in the context of knowledge-based economy.
He, therefore, urged teachers to regularly build their capacity to enable them to contribute meaningfully towards accelerated national development.
Mr Alex Tettey- Enyo, Minister of Education, said the Ministry had developed a plan which had mapped out a number of strategies to address problems that confronted the education sector.
He said one of such strategies was to support volunteer teacher programmes in rural areas with emphasis on local recruitment, especially females.
Mr Vincent S. Kuagbenu, Executive Director of the National Service Scheme, said the National Volunteer Service had been mobilising graduates who had completed their national service, retired teachers and professional teachers in active service and deploying them to the classrooms to teach in remote, rural and deprived communities which lacked professional teachers.
He said it had also been providing young graduates who were not professional teachers with the requisite skills before deploying them to enable them to deliver quality service that would enhance teaching and learning.
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