Hohoe: Teacher trainees kick against proposed NSS reposting

Teacher trainees undertaking their national service in the Hohoe Municipality of the Volta Region have vowed to resist efforts by the Ghana Education Service and the National Service Secretariat to repost them to adjoining communities.

The teachers say the attempt to repost them after two months of settling in the Hohoe municipality without any compensation will inconvenience them since they may have to now look for new apartments and incur extra cost in renting.

The Hohoe Municipal President of the National Service Personnel Association (NASPA), Gordon Awuku told Citi News the leadership of the Association will not allow its members to be treated unfairly.

“When you listen to GES, they have not been able to make any convincing argument over this issue. They called a meeting yesterday. When we went, the NSS director for the district introduced the subject that this is the reason why they are leaving. Because we all agreed that when you are reposting someone, it comes with challenges.

“This clearly shows that they are not prepared to carry out this [service]. And as a leader, I told them if I allow my people to be treated this way, it means they are going to suffer. How much is national service allowance to warrant them suffering like this?” he asked.

Meanwhile, the Volta Regional Director of the National Service Scheme, Ambrose Entsiwa Junior said no such thing as compensation exists for reposting under the scheme.

The scheme reserves the right to repost service personnel depending on their relevance to the user agencies and the country at large.

“These are general concerns. I am not aware of any compensation package as far as national service postings and repostings are concerned. It is important to understand that we post national service personnel based on a number of issues.”

Background

The National Service Scheme released about 14,000 pin codes to get trainee teachers across the country to undertake a compulsory one-year national service before being employed by the government in 2018.

This new directive from the government stipulated that newly trained teachers will undertake their service after writing the Teacher Licensure Examinations.

The Director of Public Affairs at NSS, David Prah, explained that the one-year national service for teachers was mandatory by law because the teacher trainee colleges had assumed tertiary status and award diploma certificates.

Groups disagree

But the trainee teachers were opposed to the decision.

A group calling itself Teachers and Trainees Advocacy (TTA), described the new directive as “heartbreaking” and “disrespectful.”

Hundreds of unemployed teachers also partook in a demonstration to protest the directive from the government. They refused to adhere to the order.

But later on, the agitated teachers had a change of mind on the issue.

The Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh announced that it had reached an agreement with the teacher trainees for them to be posted as national service personnel.

According to him, about 16,000 of the trainee teachers had already registered with the National Service Secretariat.

“I met with the Coalition of Newly Trained Teachers and the Teacher Trainee Association of Ghana, and they went and met with the GES and finally signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to do the national service,” he explained.

Source: citinewsroom