400 PROSPECTIVE TEACHING ASSISTANTS SCREENED (PAGE 35, OCT 1)

THE Tain District Assembly in conjunction with the district office of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) has screened 400 applicants who have applied for engagement under the teaching assistants module of the programme at Nsawkaw.
The decision to screen the applicants is to get quality personnel for that module of the programme to help arrest the drastic fall in the standard of education in the district.
The applicants were examined in both written and verbal interviews while their certificates and other relevant documents were examined.
The District NYEP Co-ordinator, Mr John Kwame Duku, told the Daily Graphic that the action would enable the programme to engage the best personnel under the teaching assistants module of the programme.
That, he said, would improve the standard of education in the district, whose trained teachers were inadequate.
Mr Duku stated that another reason for the thorough screening of applicants was to ensure that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government’s strict adherence to transparency was established and also to avoid the politicisation of the programme.
“We are engaging applicants based on their performance and not party affiliations,” he stressed.
Mr Duku further stated that the NYEP was a result-oriented body and was therefore mindful of its workforce.
He said his administration was expected to increase its existing teaching strength of 170 personnel to 270 this year.
“We allowed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to conduct the necessary tests because it has the ability of identifying good teachers for us,” he stated.
Some of the applicants interviewed were happy about the selection procedures.
Mr Osei Peter, an applicant, said the process had given equal ground for all, irrespective of one’s political leaning to justify their inclusion.
It will be recalled that the Daily Graphic in its July 7, 2009 issue carried a story with the headline “Youth to justify engagement”.
The story read, “Those engaged under the teaching assistants module of the NYEP in the Tain District in the Brong Ahafo Region are to write examinations to justify their continuous engagement under the programme”.