Education system should make students assertive – NSS Boss
The Executive Director of the Ghana National Service Scheme, Mr Vincent Senam Kuagbenu observed on Tuesday that the country’s education system suppressed students instead of making them assertive.
He said tertiary education should aim at solving the numerous problems facing the country and also afford students the opportunity to be acquainted with peculiar challenges in their areas of study.
Mr Kuagbenu said this when he addressed the Greater Accra National Service Week Business Seminar on the theme, “Creating Wealth through Entrepreneurship and Agriculture.”
He said students who were offered the opportunity to undertake development-oriented academic programmes would be better placed to face the challenges facing the nation and contribute positively to solve them.
Mr Kuagbenu noted that under no circumstances should tertiary education push anyone into a state of helplessness.
He expressed worry about the over-politicization of personnel deployment and noted that it was one of the challenges of the GNSS. He said this should end to enable the GNSS to enforce its rules and regulations.
Mr Kuagbenu commended personnel who had braved the odds to be of service to people in deprived communities, saying “Ghana is proud of you”.
He urged them to explore other avenues such as agriculture and entrepreneurship to make a living.
Dr Pascal Brenya, Human Resource Consultant for the United Nations and the British Council, said mediocrity was a sin that should be avoided by all and charged the personnel to learn to deal with failure and rejection, and think positively about themselves.
He said the job market needed assertive, organised and responsible people and until personnel proved their assertiveness it would be difficult for them to have placement in the market.
Dr Brenya said people who made it in life were mostly those who worked for themselves because it would be difficult to succeed while working for someone else and advised that those who were employed should have alternative sources of income.
Mr S. K. Dapaah, author of “You Can Do Better”, encouraged graduates to acquire an entrepreneurial spirit and to venture into areas like land investment and agriculture rather than rely on white collar jobs.
Source: GNA