Koforidua, Sept 11, GNA- The National Service Scheme (NSS) is to assist the Ghana Education Service (GES) fill the more than 17, 000 vacant teaching posts in basic institutions in the rural areas. The NSS intends to fill the gap with about 10,000 regular service personnel and those to be recruited under the Ghana National Volunteer Programme (GNVP).

The GES currently envisages a teacher shortfall of about 17,000, which are to be filled with about 8,000 newly trained teachers, while the NSS provides the remaining figure, which would include at least 2,000 retired teachers.

The National Programme Co-coordinator of the GNVP, Mr George Gado, disclosed this at an orientation and selection programme for about 600 prospective volunteers for the Eastern Region at Koforidua on Tuesday.

At least 520 of the 600, who are vying for various teaching situations, are to be recruited to join a number of retired teachers who have also expressed their willingness to enlist in the programme. The applicants are mostly University and Polytechnic graduates who have already discharged their mandatory national service and are to enjoy a stipend as they offer their services in the remotest parts of the country that are often neglected by other professionals. Mr. Gado was emphatic that no educational reform programme could succeed without tackling the problem of the lack of teachers in the rural areas.

He said before the GNVP begun, the percentage pass of some schools in the Northern part of the country had been as low as 0.6, but said this had since risen to 21 per cent following the allocation of the volunteer teachers to those schools.

He noted that the remarkable performance of the schools, indicated that great prospects could be unearthed among students in those deprived communities, who could then use their acquired skills in helping their communities overcome the blight of poverty.

Mr Gado admonished them to help sustain the programme and build on the pioneering work of people such as Ms. Asiedu Yirenkyi, a retired lecturer of the University of Ghana and a renowned dramatist, who decided voluntarily to deploy their talents at the disposal of deprived communities.

In a welcoming address, Mr E.A. Aarah Bapuah, Eastern Regional Co-coordinator of the NSS, re-asserted the need to make the programme a rural-based one with the only exception being postings to district capitals that were still classified as deprived.

He entreated the prospective volunteers to be touched by the plight of students in communities often deprived of teachers and regard themselves as part of the means towards solving the problem of inequity in the development of the country.

In this regard, he pleaded with them to de-emphasize financial rewards, but stressed more on facilities that could be granted them to make the programme sustainable.

The acting Eastern Regional Director of Education, who chaired the function, Miss Felicia Duku, said contrary to popular assertion, teaching was a respected and honourable profession, which must be enhanced to make it attractive to the youth.