The Director of the National Volunteer Service, NVS, George Gado says the NVS is not in competition with the Ghana Education Service, GES, in providing educational services in the country.

He said the NVS under the tutelage of the National Service Scheme is only harnessing the huge labour market of people who have finished their National Service but are jobless, for the classrooms.

Mr. Gado was addressing the opening ceremony of a five-day Training Skills for Volunteers, Trainer of Trainees Workshop, for the Eastern and Volta Regions. 

According to him, the chunk of volunteers are picked from about forty thousand National Service persons assigned to classrooms every year. He said the Volunteers Scheme, a model of the British Volunteer Service Overseas, VSO, which commenced in 2003, has come to help raise performance in many disadvantaged schools in the country.

Mr. Gado further stated that the NVS will collaborate with the GES and Professional Associations in education in every aspect of the volunteer programme.

The Assistant Director of Administration and Finance of the Adaklu-Anyigbe District Directorate of the GES, Emmanuel Kofi Adanu expressed regret at the breakdown of the in-house training programme 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 need training to be effective, then there is the need for the fresh service personnel who are posted to classrooms to have some training.