Distance Education Students Angry Over ‘Selective’ Recruitment

Distance Education Students Angry Over ‘Selective’ Recruitment.

The Distance Education Students Association of Ghana (DESAG), has accused the Ministry of Education of discriminating against it members in a recent recruitment exercise.

The Ministry recently received clearance from the Finance Ministry to replace, recruit and re-appoint 22,802 teaching and non-teaching staff for the 2017/2018 academic year in first and second cycle institutions across the country.

But the Public Relations Officer for the Distance Education Students, David Fianu, said their checks indicate that none of their members has been recruited, a situation he said has created a huge backlog of unemployed distance education graduates.

“Our question is on what grounds are they also saying that those who obtained their certificates by distance and sandwich will not be considered. We want to get an explanation of that statement. We don’t understand why they want to limit recruitment to only college students. The letter we had was that there was a limited recruitment for teaching staff. And in that letter they stated that candidates who obtained their certificates by distance and sandwich will not be considered.”

“Now we felt bad because the University of Cape Coast sets questions for college students.  The same university is preparing people from the distance programme. It means that we all get the same experience and all the necessary skills they need in the teaching field. So why will the Ghana Education Service now limit recruitment to only college students? That is our concern,” he added.

DESAG further charged the Ministry to explain the format it used for the recruit exercise.

We can’t employ more public sector workers

This comes on the back of government’s revelation that it can’t employ more public sector workers.

Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, who made the disclosure in August 2017, said government does not have the capacity to employ more public servants.

“The public sector is full in terms of employment, [and] we can’t employ anybody in the public sector,” he said.