Nkawie (Ash), May 19, GNA - Teachers, especially females, have been advised to dress decently to school and desist from any act that tends to ridicule the profession.

Mrs Dinah Appiah, the Atwima Nwabiagya District Director of Education, said teachers were seen as role models to pupils and the public and should portray good morals and virtues for others to emulate. She was addressing over 400 basic school teachers from Nkawie and Toaso Education circuits at a teachers' durbar organized for her at Nkawie on Friday to round-off her two weeks' visits to six education circuits in the district.

Mrs Appiah urged teachers to encourage their pupils to be more interested in science, mathematics and technical subjects and refrain from escaping those.

Fr F.C.K Ntim-Gyakari, the Nkawie Circuit Supervisor, said the two circuits have the most qualified, experienced and committed teachers in the district hence, its excellent performance in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for the past four years. The introduction of the capitation grant and the school-feeding programme, he said, had increased the enrolment figure in the two circuits from 5,925 in 2005/2006 academic year to 7,831 in 2006/2007. This has put pressure on teachers and facilities schools and appealed to the directorate and the district assembly to improve them. Mr Ntim-Gyakari appealed to the district assembly to sponsor more science, mathematics and pre-technical teachers to augment the inadequate staff in the schools.

The teachers expressed serious concern about the delay by the Ghana Education Service to upgrade their monthly salaries after they had been promoted to the next level of the professional structures. The basic school heads also complained about the undue delay and untimely release of funds of the capitation grant to the schools and that the situation was undermining effective teaching and learning in the schools.