The Eastern Regional Youth Organizer of the ruling government National Democratic Congress (NDC), Richard Etornam Nyarko, has strongly criticized the Ghana Education Service (GES) over its decision to charge teacher recruitment applicants GH¢25 to check the status of their applications, describing the policy as insensitive and unfair to unemployed graduates.
He has, therefore, called on the Service to immediately reverse the decision and refund all applicants who have already purchased the vouchers.
Mr. Nyarko who was speaking to the media at Koforidua over the weekend said the policy places an unnecessary financial burden on thousands of young graduates who are already struggling to secure employment, arguing that it is unjust to compel applicants to pay simply to ascertain whether they have been offered employment.
“GES must stop and reverse the decision of voucher sales to applicants seeking to serve their nation. To collect money from an applicant only to be told he or she was not hired is a cruel slap in the face of an already troubled young man or woman,” he stated.
The NDC youth leader maintained that recruitment into the public service should not become an avenue for imposing additional financial hardship on job seekers, particularly at a time when graduate unemployment remains a major national concern.
He further appealed to the Ghana Education Service to refund all applicants who have already paid for the vouchers, expressing confidence that the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, would intervene to review the decision in the interest of fairness. “We are social Democrats, and government policies must reflect fairness, compassion, and social justice,” he stressed.
Mr. Nyarko argued that public institutions must adopt policies that ease the burden on citizens rather than create additional obstacles for young people seeking employment.
His comments follow an announcement by the Ghana Education Service directing applicants who applied for recruitment into the Service to check the status of their applications through the official teacher recruitment portal using a GH¢25 voucher.
In a statement signed by the Head of Public Relations of the GES, Daniel Fenyi, the Service indicated that the release of application results would take place in two phases.
According to the statement, applicants seeking placement in the pre-secondary sector, comprising early childhood education and primary schools, were expected to begin checking their status from 5:00 p.m., while applicants for the secondary sector, including Junior High Schools (JHS) and Senior High Schools (SHS), were scheduled to access their results from 9:00 p.m. through the online recruitment portal.
Available figures indicate that more than 40,000 graduates submitted applications through the GES recruitment portal, competing for only 7,000 available teaching positions nationwide.
The Ministry of Education has assured applicants that the recruitment exercise will be conducted strictly on merit, with the most qualified candidates selected from the large pool of applicants.
However, the introduction of the voucher requirement has generated public debate, with critics arguing that charging unemployed graduates to access the outcome of their own applications is inappropriate, while others contend that the fee is necessary to facilitate the administration of the recruitment process.
