Accra, April 29, GNA - The National Volunteer Service (NVS) has filled 25,000 teaching vacancies within a period of five years, an impact assessment on the Service revealed on Tuesday.

The figure represents about 60 per cent of all teachers in the country and accounts for approximately 20 per cent of the untrained teachers working in the Ghana Education Service (GES) schools.

Mrs. Celia Marshall, Co-Director of Participatory Development Associates, consultants on volunteering service made this known at a meeting in Accra to review the impact of volunteering on the country's development agenda, since its inception in 2003.

The meeting attended by representatives from the National Service secretariat, volunteers, a delegation from Nigeria to understudy Ghana's volunteering scheme among other stakeholders, would also discuss findings of the five-year assessment report.

According to Mrs Marshall, the contribution of the teaching volunteers comprising mostly post-tertiary graduates and retired teachers has led to major transformation in the educational sector, especially within the rural and other deprived areas.

She said the Service had also led to the appreciation of the value of community service by beneficiaries to develop the spirit of helping the disadvantaged in society.

As a result, she said, about 10 per cent of volunteers joined the GES after their volunteering service.

Mrs. Marshall said the challenge to achieve the desired impact lied in the ability to recruiting personnel with the expertise relevant to change lives, instead of using the programme as just a channel for employment.

She said the Service, which began with 53 volunteers currently, has 12, 846 personnel teaching in GES schools.

Nii Doodo Doodo, Programmes Manager of the Volunteer Sending Organisation (VSO), explained that the VSO was established to promote volunteerism to fight global poverty and the disadvantaged.

He said the programme which initially provided opportunities for personnel in the United Kingdom, had been extended to over 20 countries in North America, Asia and Africa to encourage more active citizenship, social cohesion and promote human resource.

Participants called for the replication of the volunteer service to benefit other sectors such as health and sanitation.