He said the Association and its frequent threats of strikes could be counterproductive and wondered why the youth did not want to begin life from somewhere.
Mr Gunu said the move could negatively influence some unemployed youth into slumber, preventing them from forging on until it might be too late for them.
The DCE was welcoming a group of 50 tertiary students, who arrived to undertake voluntary teaching service in basic schools in the area.
The group comprised 20 members of the Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) University Tertiary Educational Institute Network (TEIN) of the NDC and 30 Teacher Trainees Association hailing from the area under the name ‘Ave Teacher Trainees Association’.
Mr Gunu called for the revival of the spirit of voluntarism and nationalism.
He said while youths from other countries would serve in all parts of the country as voluntary service workers, Ghanaians even considered transfers to some areas as punishment.
Mr. Gunu said many had chanced upon life opportunities through voluntary service and noted that graduate unemployment might continue if the youth would not want to seek and search.
He commended the volunteers for their love for their country and also lauded communities for accepting to meet the needs of the volunteers.
Mrs. Kate Mikado, the District Director of Education, said the area, ceded off from former Akatsi District, had many dire educational challenges including inadequate teachers, pupil laziness and parental apathy.
‘We have just about 100 teachers, some classrooms lacking teachers and some schools being totally manned by untrained community-teachers’, she said.
Mrs. Mikado therefore welcomed the arrival of the volunteers and urged them to work hard, follow the teaching guidelines and help sensitize pupils on the value of education.
She requested for more lady volunteers next time and cautioned the male volunteers against taking advantage of the female students and told them to respect traditional values and norms, work closely with local school management authorities and head teachers in areas they will be posted to.
Mrs. Mikado said her outfit set a target of 40 percentage pass in the 2014 BECE, away from the embarrassing 2013 performance, which put the district second to last in the Volta Region.
Mr. Gabriel Abusah, a tutor of Akatsi College of Education and Patron of the volunteers, appealed to teachers not to consider the volunteers as coming to compete with them in anyway.
He identified candidates’ lack of understanding of questions as the bane for the mass BECE failures, saying his volunteers would be address these, mostly in areas of English and Mathematics in their five-week stay.
Mr. Felix Nyarko, Leader of the EP University Student, group promised to work hard, saying they were elated by the never-before manner in which they were welcomed and promised the group would return next vacation.
GNA
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