Heading a six-member delegation, the South Africa Deputy Minister for Education, Buti Manamela, took a three -day tour on the Scheme’s operation including visiting various fields where personnel have been posted.

According to the Minister, although South Africa was implementing a similar policy, Ghana’s scheme which is mandatory is doing far better than theirs which is voluntary, hence the need for a partnership so as to use the country’s experience to help restructure the process involved in South Africa’s Service Scheme.

“The big challenge that we have is building an institution that will be able to coordinate national service. There is a service taken place in South Africa but it’s all fragmented. So the fact that you (Ghana) have got a national service scheme that has been working for the last thirty years means that there are a lot of lessons to be learnt and it’s always good to learn from people who have been able to do it so you don’t repeat some mistakes that they have. But of course with South Africa, we are looking at implementing this on a much larger scale than you do in Ghana here, but we still have a lot to learn.”

On his part, the Executive Director of the GNSS Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte said Ghana will also take advantage and benefit from the new partnership. According to him, the partnership will also involve an exchange program for personnel between the two countries.

“I personally think that if we have a frame work that allows young people who are due for service here in Ghana,  participate in a few month service in south Africa and some personnel from there come down here, it will help expose them to the diverse nature of our society.”

According to the Executive Director, it was an honour for the country to share its knowledge and experience with others.

The South Africa ‘National Youth Service’ is quite fragmented and not mandatory and in their view we have a better system, although in Ghana, we have our own challenges. They are optimistic they can learn something from us and we can also learn a lot more about where we can take national service, and the idea is how we can even connect the youth across the various countries.”

Currently, the services comprises of the Rural Development Service, the Agricultural and Agro-business, Community Health support, Educational Support Unit, Urban Traffic management, Private Sector and General Administration.

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By: Felicia Osei/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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