Discussion underway to introduce compulsory pedagogy programme - Ayariga

Mr Mahama Ayariga, Deputy Minister of Education, on Friday said Government was discussing with the universities to introduce a compulsory module on pedagogy in all tertiary institutions as most of the graduates were posted to the teaching field. �The greatest harm we have been causing to the future of our children has been the unleashing of thousands of graduates of tertiary institutions who know nothing about how to teach to serve as teachers in our basic schools,� she said. Speaking at the National Service Scheme (NSS) 2011 Stakeholders� Conference and Exhibition in Accra, the Deputy Minister said the government was determined to put an end to that by the introduction of the compulsory programme in pedagogy. �We have been talking to NSS too about this and we hope that the stakeholders will accept this imperative and we will move expeditiously to implement the programme,� he said. The conference, under the theme; �National Service Scheme in Retrospect: Challenges and the Way Forward,� was to review the scheme and to draw new ideas and support from stakeholders to enhance its performance. Mr Ayariga said the NSS was the effort of Ghanaians to create a compulsive legal regime for the strategic deployment of the energies of the youth for the attainment of a set national vision whilst simultaneously orienting them towards the commitment to such efforts. That, he said, included both educated and uneducated youth so that the vast stock of youthful energies in the informal sector were by that law available for deployment into whatever strategic vision the nation crafted for itself. �Unfortunately, our National Service Scheme has over the years restricted itself to only school graduates and the deployment of its personnel has not been particularly aimed at implementing particular development visions. �I am here talking not about the coincidental achievement of the vision when one is merely involved in a routine of posting. �I bring up these issues today not to berate the leadership of the scheme over the years or we the political leaders of this country. �(But) it is to illuminate the deliberations that will take place here as we review the Ghana National Service Scheme after several decades of its implementation to assess its continuing relevance and the strategic direction we should opt for as we move forward within (the regime) which we are operating now and the context of constitutional rights that must guide our actions and even inactions,� he said. Mr Ayariga said the Asian Tigers, notably Malaysia, Singapore and China, succeeded on the back of the mobilization of their human endowments which were used to exploit their natural resources to create value with which they then acquired technology at varying stages to ultimately create a knowledge-based economy which transformed some of them into the world�s manufacturing giants. He said: �Our ability to mobilize our populations and almost compulsively direct their efforts in prioritized areas is the issue here and the kind of instruments to be deployed to achieve this is what comes to mind on an occasion like this.� He therefore appreciated the work and sacrifices of all those who had managed the scheme all these decades very often under very trying conditions. �I have noted with satisfaction the efforts of the present management of the scheme to provide some new direction to the scheme and inject some dynamism,� he said, and assured them of government�s continued support. Mr Ayariga also commended the scheme for the effort to make agriculture a central focus of its programme by the many farms it was establishing around the country.