Ho, June 29, GNA - The National Volunteer Service (NVS) is not in competition with the Ghana Education Service (GES) in providing educational services in the country, Mr George Gado, NVS National Director said in Ho on Monday. He was addressing the opening ceremony of a five-day Training Skills for Volunteers, Trainer of Trainers Workshop, for the Eastern and Volta regions.

Mr Gado said the NVS under the tutelage of the National Service Scheme was only harnessing the huge labour market of people who have finished their National Service but were jobless, for the classrooms. He said the chunk of volunteers were picked from the about 40,000 National Service Persons assigned to classrooms every year. Mr Gado said the Volunteers Scheme, modeled after the British Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) which commenced in 2003, had come to help raise performance in many disadvantaged schools in the country. He said the NVS would collaborate with the GES and professional associations in education in every aspect of the Volunteer programme. Mr Emmanuel Kofi Adanu, Assistant Director, Administration and Finance of the Adaklu-Anyigbe District Directorate of the GES, expressed regret at the breakdown of the in-house training for teachers within the GES.

He said modules in the past that introduced untrained teachers to teaching methods and upgraded their knowledge in various subjects are largely non-existent.

Mr Adanu said if volunteer unprofessional teachers needed training to be effective then there is the need as well for the fresh service personnel who are posted to the classrooms to have some training.