Ho, Oct. 5, GNA - President John Atta Mills has directed the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to ensure that salaries and emoluments of teachers, especially newly engaged ones and those in deprived and remote areas, are promptly paid. He noted that one of the major demoralizing factors for teachers had been the delays and inequity in remuneration for work done in comparison with their colleagues in other sectors.

President Mills gave the directive in a speech read on his behalf by Vice President John Dramani Mahama at the 15th National Best Teacher Award Ceremony in Ho, the Volta Regional capital. The celebration was held on the theme: "Build the Future, Invest in Teachers Now."

There were prizes for teachers who had excelled in Primary, Junior High and Senior High Schools as well as Colleges of Education. Also, teachers who have distinguished themselves in the teaching of Science, Mathematics, French, Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and Special Education will also receive awards. President Mills said the Government expected to achieve a future of highly skilled labour with an investment in teachers, explaining that Ghana could not be left behind especially at a time when knowledge had become the defining ingredient of progress in a globalise world.

The President said Government recognized the importance of its responsibility to provide quality education to the citizenry, and investing in teachers had more than ever before become paramount. Government therefore would play its part in the positive transformation of the lives of the entire society into an enlightened one by investing in teachers now, the President said. "It is my hope that the single spine salary structure we hope to commence next year would resolve this challenge and spur teachers on to give of their best to society."

President Mills said one of the objectives of the education reforms was to attract dedicated and competent persons into the teaching profession, retain highly qualified teachers by providing support, incentives and ensuring students' access to high quality teaching. These ideals continued to be the dream of many Ghanaians, and the quality of the human resources that teachers produce for a nation determines its future development.

President Mills said Ghana therefore needed to celebrate her teachers to propel them to produce high calibre functional literates for meeting the challenges of globalisation.

"Having good teachers over a considerable number of years could eliminate the achievement gap between the deprived rural schools and urban schools. Clearly, if we desire as a country to give every child the chance to succeed in life, we need to invest in the quality of our teachers.

"This investment will increase the number of graduates who would be willing to enter the profession. Just as teachers are trained before they enter the classrooms there is also the need to continue to support and afford teachers opportunities to develop their skills whilst teaching.

"Fellow Ghanaians, it is only through the provision of quality teachers that we can build our nation and Government remains committed to improving teacher output."

President Mills said motivation was the key to any successful business and the award scheme was not just to motivate the recipients but also to ginger up all numerous teachers in various corners of Ghana to continuously focus on unearthing the hidden talents in children they taught for mother Ghana's socio-economic, political and technological growth.

The President said Government for that reason shall continue to review teacher training, teacher motivation and development policies regularly, and encouraged teachers to take advantage of distance education as a convenient alternative of upgrading themselves since it is one of the government's motivational package for teachers. He gave the assurance that Government's financial support on this programme to cover tuition fees will be maintained and enhanced periodically.

President Mills said Government would also initiate action this academic year to implement teacher allowances proposed in the NDC Manifesto, and noted that incentive packages and allowances for teachers who taught in deprived areas as well as teachers who taught Science, Mathematics, Technical and Vocational subjects, would be of special interest.

He announced that in the coming years, the awards would be expanded to cover more teachers as well as non-teaching personnel than was being done currently.

President Mills urged all teachers to give of their best since the Best Teacher Award lenses could capture them at the Regional and District levels as well.

"I want to use this opportunity to appeal to all district chief executives and their directors of education to take the district Best Teachers Awards seriously and organise the award ceremonies annually to motivate the teachers in their districts."

On the posting of teachers, President Mills said this year, a total of 8,919 teachers graduating from the 39 Colleges of Education had been distributed to the regions for posting.

With regard to posting of teachers who graduated from tertiary institutions in 2009, more than 3,500 of them have had their posting processed and sent to all the regions to start teaching this academic year. President Mills said Government would continue to enhance its ICT policies in schools to upgrade the competence of both pupils and teachers to be able to use computers, improve upon their learning skills, open and use E-mails and seek information by surfing the web to broaden their knowledge base. 5 Oct. 09