National Service Scheme Uniform, National service in this country is done as a pay back to the country for the support it has been able to render to the tertiary students across the length and breadth of the country. National service personnel in this country have been transformed from farmers to teachers and now to security personnel there is no problem with that. The wearing of uniforms by national service personnel as suggested or stated by the service director Vincent Kuagbenu and others is not the most important subject that should be discussed now since there are more things that national service personnel and the national service scheme as a whole needs.
National service personnel within this particular country do not need uniforms as it is being done in other African countries. Example, in Nigeria. First of all we need to know the reasons why other countries prefer uniforms for their national service personnel to other multi-colored dresses, apart from the fact that it serves as a form of identity there is no other chief reason why a group must wear uniform. If uniforms are to be recommended then we need to take into consideration , the population or number of students that graduate from our various public tertiary institutions and the number of private tertiary institutions that we are having currently in Ghana .
If the population of students is very huge and therefore they can not be identified, then there is the need for the uniform to operate but if that is not the case then i consider that to be unnecessary. Taking Nigeria as an example every state has its own university and therefore you will get to know that they are having more public universities than this country and so the graduates for every year are more than that of this country, which is one chief reason they are uniformed for identification.
Also there is also the need to consider the sustainability of this new development, if this is to be done above all other factual benefits then authorities need to make sure that this will not be a short run program but will last if not forever then for a very long time. This should not be a party or a government initiative so that other party or government will come and change but should be a generally accepted issue or development whereby every party or government will get to know the benefits to the nation and the scheme as well.
How is national service personnel treated in this country when rendering their service to the country? This is a chief question that all Ghanaians need to ask and the authorities also need to ask themselves before putting forward such an initiative, national service personnel who are posted to the rural areas are supposed to be treated well by the government and other institutions involved so that their stay at that particular regions or areas will be comfortable. This will prevent them from regretting in servicing the country with their knowledge and strength.
Another way that the government can help the tertiary graduates is by recommending any potential student to available organizations; these organizations can be either private or public. Most students complete their national service successfully but because there no vacancies in that particular organization they keep searching till they become weary. There are most graduates in the country who are not employed all because of the unwillingness of most organizations to employ them. If the government is able to give them recommendation letters, there will be a considerable decrease in the number of unemployed tertiary graduates.
The government can do this through interconnection with the organizations where the graduates offered their national service. It is very regretting to find out that in this country there is a group that call themselves the Unemployed Graduate Association of Ghana (UGAG). This is not their faults because if the government can provide them with national service areas and regions but can not provide them with adequate employment then what is the need of national service to the graduates. If the national service personnel do not get jobs after their service does not mean that there no jobs available but the government do not care about them anymore after the national service. The government therefore is selfish, seeking for its own interest without considering that of the tertiary graduates.
What the government must know is that not all tertiary graduates want to start with a white collar jobs, some are even willing to enter into the educational sector as teachers and so on. What people must know is that this is a national matter and interest and therefore should treated as such, this problem of graduates unemployment has been since time immemorial. These are what are needed and not uniforms for identification because identification without recommendation is nothing. I am very sorry service director Vincent Kuagbenu.