A former Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Solomon Obeng, has suggested that the GES and the Ministry of Education Science and Sports assist teachers who are engaged in distance learning and other top-up programmes to pay their fees. He said if the financial impediment, which had been the major complaint of teachers involved in these programmes were removed they would be better encouraged to pursue the courses to improve themselves to meet the challenges of the new educational reforms. Mr Obeng made the suggestion at the 6th graduation ceremony of the Wesley Training College (WESCO) in Kumasi on Saturday. He said for the education reforms to succeed the teacher who served as an instrument of change and a pivot around whom everything revolved, must be very well motivated and resourced to produce his best, adding that, “anything short of this, to say the least, will be precariously dangerous for the reforms”. Mr Obeng said it was in recognition of this that the GES and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports had embarked upon a number of interventions to ensure that the teacher became more resourceful and maximize all the inputs made available to him. Among them are, the upgrading of all training colleges to tertiary status to offer diplomat certificates to teachers, introduction of distance learning in almost all the public universities, a top-up courses for certificate A teachers and the untrained diplomat programme for pupil teachers among others. He, however, deplored the poor service conditions for teachers and said better conditions of service were an important ingredient required to produce a committed and resourceful teacher. Mr Obeng said it was high time that the conditions of service of teachers were seriously looked into with the view to improving them to ensure that teachers were content and were prepared to give of their best. He also called for the establishment of well stocked libraries and ICT centres in teacher training colleges. Prizes were awarded to deserving students and staff. Source: GNA