Mr. Kwame Amo-Darko, Immediate past President of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), on Tuesday urged teachers to show dedication, commitment and hard work in the implementation of the new educational reforms to succeed. He advised teachers to attend classes regularly, on time and take their initial and in-service training serious to acquire the necessary competence to facilitate teaching and learning in schools. Mr Amo-Darko made the call when addressing a durbar for teachers organised by the Eastern Region branch of GNAT as part of this year's Teachers Day celebration in Koforidua. The celebration was under the theme "Quality Teachers for Quality Education: Teacher Participation in the New Education Reform". He appealed to teachers to exhibit the right attitudes to create conducive teaching and learning environment in schools. Mr Amo-Darko noted that teacher motivation was the core of the education reforms and to ensure quality education, the teacher should be well motivated to achieve success in education. He therefore, appealed to government to ensure that teachers were paid salaries that reflected their profession; pragmatic measures to pay newly trained teachers from training colleges promptly. Mr Amo-Darko expressed concern that salaries of teachers who completed their training in 2005 had not been paid. Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of Education, Science and Sports in a speech read on his behalf commended GNAT for its contribution to education in the country. He urged most teachers to take the opportunity and enroll in Distance Education and Sandwich programmes being undertaken by the universities. Professor Fobih said such efforts would help retain most teachers in the classroom and augment efforts by GNAT towards professional development of its members. Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, Eastern Regional Minister, assured teachers that government would endeavour to improve their conditions of service. He said the Best Teacher Award, Study Leave with Pay, accommodation for teachers and incentives for those in deprived communities were some of the measures being instituted to motivate teachers. Five hardworking teachers from each region were presented with computers and certificates of merit. Source: GNA