National Service offers pedagogic training to personnel
The National Service Scheme (NSS) in collaboration with the National Teaching Council (NTC) has commenced pedagogic training for 6,000 national service personnel posted to various schools to enhance their teaching and learning.
Dubbed, “Pedagogy training for untrained teachers on NSS teaching module”, the training forms part of the new agenda of the NSS, which moves away from mobilising for deployment to mobilising for employment.
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Absorbed
After the initial two-week training, the service personnel would be offered intermittent training till they complete their service and after which they would be certified to be fully fledged teachers and absorbed by the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Launching the programme, the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, said quality learning required highly competent and committed teachers employing active pedagogies that were consistent with internationally agreed teaching and learning practices.
She described the initiative to offer pedagogy training to national service personnel who were deployed to various second cycle institutions as great because it would afford the personnel the requisite professional skills to deliver quality teaching to students.
Mrs Osei-Opare said it was also consistent with the GES 2018-2030 strategic plan, which sought to boost access and equity to improve quality, increase relevance, improve efficiency and effectiveness in education.
Domestic financing champion
“This initiative is also in line with the call by President Akufo-Addo on his recent appointment as Domestic Financing Champion of the Global Partnership for Education for member states of UNESCO to ensure that education remained the priority in the core development agenda of countries and develop sustainable home-grown financial solutions,” she added.
Mrs Osei-Opare said the introduction of the free SHS had increased enrolment in senior high schools and TVET institutions and statistics available indicated that the enrolment that stood at over 800, 000 in 2016-2017 academic year had increased to 1.2 million in the 2019-2020 academic year.
In the case of TVET, she noted that enrolment increased from 53,000 in the 2016-2017 academic year to 59,000 in 2019-2020 academic year.
Gaps
She explained that education was a fundamental human right and a critical tool for socio-economic development.
The Chief of Staff gave the assurance that the government would offer the needed support for successful implementation of the programme and commended the Executive Director of the NSS, Osei Assibey Antwi, for the innovative programmes.
Laudable
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum said the decision of the NSS to embark on such training was laudable as it would help in providing the NSS teachers with the skills and acumen to offer quality 21st century training to the students.
He said they would also be in a better position to prepare their lesson plan and be more effective to deliver effective and efficient teaching and learning and also support the government transformation agenda.
For his part, Mr Assibey Antwi said some of the teachers would be sent to second cycle schools, while others would be sent to technical and vocational training institutions.
He announced that of the 51,000 people posted to educational institutions, 36,000 would be at the basic school level, saying it was the first time in the 49-year history of the NSS that personnel posted to school were being offered such training.