Lecturers in public universities have decided to return to the lecture halls, following the government’s favourable response to their concerns.The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) took the decision at an emergency meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) in Accra Thursday.According to the President of UTAG, Dr Anthony Simons, the decision to resume work was informed by the fact that “substantial progress had been made in relation to the payment of salary arrears and the January 2012 salary difference due academic senior members of public universities”.“In the light of this development, NEC has decided to restore teaching services at the public universities in the country, effective March 23, 2012,” Dr Simons stated.Members of UTAG withdrew teaching services from all public universities on March 16, 2012 and threatened to withdraw even more services if the government failed to respond promptly to their request.The UTAG strike came on the heels of the government’s failure to meet its deadline in settling the 10-month payment of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) arrears of the academic senior members of public universities.In an interview, Dr Simons explained that lecturers of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) had received vouchers for the salary arrears.He said payment vouchers of lecturers of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in Tarkwa and others were currently with the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), while those of lecturers of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) and the University of Ghana, Legon, were yet to get to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department.Dr Simons appealed to the government to expedite work on the payment of the arrears.There are about 2,500 lecturers in public universities in Ghana.The University of Cape Coast has 400; Legon, 800; KNUST, 600; UMaT, 70; the University for Development Studies (UDS), 300, the UEW, 300; IPS, 70, and the GIJ, 24.