(2nd left) Osei-Assibey Antwi, NSS Executive Director with Nana Kobina Nketsia V and other key dignitaries at the function
The Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Osei Assibey Antwi, has disclosed that upcoming national service personnel who will be deployed to teach in schools across the country will receive pedagogical training toward the award of temporary certificates as a permit to practice as teachers.
Pedagogic training is the study of how knowledge and skills are imparted in an educational context, and it considers the interactions that take place during learning and how they affect learners.
That, he indicated, is in fulfilment of the provisions of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020, (Act 1023), which enjoins the National Teaching Council (NTC) to ensure that only professionally trained and qualified teachers are deployed to teach in schools. According to him, the award of the temporary certificates is also to aid them to teach.
The NSS Executive Director made this disclosure during the 12th Annual Terminal Congress of the National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) in Takoradi, dubbed “Enhancing the Welfare of NSP for Economic Revitalisation and National Development”.
Collaboration
Mr Assibey Antwi said the Scheme was collaborating with the relevant stakeholders such as the NTC, T-Tel, GES, GTEC, PRINCOF, Ghana Technical Vocational Education and Training Services, and the Vice-Chancellors of the five public universities that train teachers to deliver this important training.
He further pointed out that his outfit had initiated a number of interventions such as the NSS in Affordable Classroom Housing, NSS Youth and Women in Agriculture, and the NSS in Affordable Teachers Housing.
These initiatives, he said, were aimed at supporting the country’s development agenda as well as creating sustainable job opportunities for the graduate youth.
“The Scheme has also introduced the NSS-Ministry of Tourism and Culture Support Programme, which aims at aiding the hospitality industry and allied sectors with professionals in order to boost the tourism sector. These and many others are geared towards improving the employment rate of National Service Personnel after their one-year mandatory service to the nation,” he noted.
To this end, the NSS Executive Director urged NASPA and all NSPs to embrace these opportunities to transition into jobs after the training and certification.
Accordingly, the Scheme’s new mission of “Deployment for Employment” is deemed crucial to enhancing the welfare personnel for economic revitalisation and national development.
Commendation
The chairman of the occasion, the Omanhene of Essikado Traditional Area, Nana Kobina Nketsia V, urged the service personnel to embrace the many innovative opportunities and interventions the Scheme had made available to improve their livelihoods.
He admonished them to be humble, patriotic, and offer themselves to be trained since the knowledge acquired in school alone cannot guarantee them jobs.
“As youth, do not offer yourselves to be used by politicians who may sacrifice Ghana’s interest for their own parochial gains. All participants must take inspiration from the words of the National Youth Anthem, which states, inter alia, ‘…Arise Ghana Youth for your country. The nation demands your devotion. Let us unite to uphold her…’,” he entreated.
Nana Kobina Nketsia V further commended the gesture of Kumawuhene, Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua, for allotting large tracts of land to the Scheme for its agricultural project. He reaffirmed his commitment to supporting the project, and called on the personnel to take up agriculture as a “sustainable alternative livelihood venture”.
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