Govt asked to restructure National Youth Council

Friday, May 27, 2011

PRINCIPALS of Youth Leadership and Skills Training Institutes of the National Youth Council’s (NTC), have reiterated their call on the government to restructure and redesign the council with the responsibility to handle all programmes directed towards the development of the youth.
The new NYC which the principals suggested should be called the National Youth Development Authority (NYDA), should be given the responsibility to be in charge of the National Youth Employment Programmes (NYEP) as well as the National Service Scheme (NSS).
These were contained in a Communiqué read at the end of the 37th Conference of Principals of the Youth Leadership and Skills Training Institutes of the NYC. The conference was held at Nalerigu in the Northern Region.
The objective of the conference was to afford the principals the opportunity to deliberate on issues concerning the effective operation of the institutes and also embark on programmes to benefit the trainees and the country at large.
The principals said the appropriate legal framework for the change of the council should also be developed to give effect to such a change.
In the communiqué which was signed by the Chairman of the conference, Mr Daniel Arhin-Sam, the group said the youth institutes had the potential through various programmes to keep a good number of the youth off the streets and provide them with employable skills to respond to the middle level artisanal manpower needs of the country’s small and middle scale enterprises.
The communiqué indicated that in spite of the importance of the institutes, the necessary funds, facilities and infrastructure to make for the effective and successful implementation of programmes had not been received, thus affecting training.
“Consequently, the Ministry of Youth and Sports is urged to quickly identify all bottlenecks and resolve to remedy the situation”, the principals pointed out.
The group observed that for well over 25 years, the National Youth Council’s Training Institutes have seen very little expansion and improvement.
“Admission quota has remained at 75 students per year and government subvention towards students’ feeding still covers only 150 students for two years in each of the institutes”, they stated.
The principals went further to stress that feeding grants per student per day was woefully inadequate and was invariably received very late making planning and management very difficult and also added to high cost of feeding.
“We urge the Ministry of Youth and Sports to intervene to facilitate the growth and expansion of our institutes and ensure increased and timely release of funds”, stated the principals.
The principals also called for the review of the GETFUND law such that Youth Leadership and Skills Training Institutes could benefit from it.
“We realise that our institutes has enormous potential to train and churn out quality middle level artisanal manpower for the Industries if well resourced and given the opportunity”, they pointed out.
The principals, however, resolved to continue to work harder with renewed commitment and zeal in spite of the daunting challenges and deficiencies to ensure the realisation of the government’s laudable vision for the empowerment and development of the youth of the country for the national good.