First Class graduates to be posted to tertiary institutions

The Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig.-Gen. Johnson Olawumi, on Wednesday said graduates with first class degrees would, henceforth, be deployed to teach in universities and other tertiary institutions, NAN reports.

Olawumi said this in Kaduna at a two-day pre-mobilisation workshop for the 2015 Batch ‘B’ NYSC programme. He said the new posting policy was to properly mobilise the right manpower to boost the education sector.

“All corps members who graduated with First Class honours Degrees and Diplomas will be posted to tertiary institutions for effective utilisation of their manpower.

The posting policy of the scheme is being vigorously implemented for the achievement of the desired impact.

I, therefore, appeal to the authorities of all tertiary institutions of learning to reciprocate this gesture by accepting and offering them permanent appointments after service.”

The NYSC DG disclosed that an online certificate verification procedure would be introduced to make participation in the scheme more transparent. He said that the verification procedure was to promote smooth interface between the scheme and the public.

“This is focused at further simplifying the procedures for certificate verification and enquiries as to whether some individuals participated in national service by making the process more transparent and less cumbersome.

Olawumi said the workshop would holistically review the scheme, identify and eliminate areas of difficulties that might crop-up during call-up formalities.

Pursuing its firm resolve to ensure that the mobilisation process is transparent and 21st century compliant, the management of the scheme introduced the online registration platform to ease the entire exercise. The initiative is now widely accepted and applauded by all stakeholders today because the initiative has eliminated cases of registration by proxy and also granted easy access to call-up letters by prospective corps members.

Arrangements have also been concluded for the setting-up of a help desk, where prospective corps members can get quick response to the challenges they may face while registering online.”

He said that ICT facilities would be provided to enable prospective corps members have a seamless mobilisation process. The NYSC boss assured that necessary changes to the format for online registration would also be made in compliance with the NYSC Act. Olawumi disclosed that 410, 821 corps members had been trained in different skills under the NYSC skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development initiative. “We, therefore, call on organisations and well meaning individuals to support the initiative of government, so that nobody is discharged from the national service without being equipped with skills for self employment.” NAN reports that the workshop was to allow stakeholders review policies and challenges of the scheme.

The theme of the workshop is `ICT and NYSC mobilisation process; towards eliminating identified challenges’.

Gov. Nasiru El-Rufa'i, while declaring the workshop open, assured that the Kaduna State Government would discharge its obligation to the scheme. The governor represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Youths and Sports, Alhaji Ibrahim Balarabe-Musa, said, “no stone will be left unturned to ensure the safety and security of corps members in all parts of the state.”