Forty-one teachers from the Ashanti Region, who are on study leave at four universities, have been withdrawn by the Ghana Education Service (GES) for using fraudulent means to benefit from the national study leave scheme. The institutions were the University of Education, Winneba, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, the University of Cape Coast and the Christian Service University College in Kumasi The withdrawal followed an exercise carried out by the regional office of the GES, which also implicated some officers for allegedly aiding the non-qualified teachers to falsify their certificates in order to enjoy the scheme. The Regional Director of the GES, Mrs Berlinda Serwaa Addo, said that the affected officers had been reassigned to ensure that there was sanity at the office. She would, however, not name the officers. The GES instituted the study leave scheme as part of the educational reforms programme, to enable teachers in the lower ranks to acquire higher education to meet the emerging challenges in the educational sector. It was also to motivate teachers to remain in the profession and put in their best. Under the scheme, teachers with the post-secondary certificate who had served for three years and above qualified for study leave with full salaries in the university. A further boost for teachers serving in deprived parts of the country is that they could access the scheme after serving for two years. This was done to motivate teachers to accept postings to the deprived areas. In the Ashanti Region 569 teachers were enjoying the scheme last year. A further 567 have been approved for study leave this year, bringing the total beneficiaries to 1,136. The regional director said some of the withdrawn teachers managed to scan their certificates to indicate that they fell within the qualification range, when in fact they had not served for three years. Mrs Addo emphasised that it was unacceptable for teachers who qualified for the study leave to be denied it because of the quota system when those who fell below the qualifying range employed negative means to gain admission to the university. Others were also withdrawn because the courses for which they were granted study leave were not the ones they were offering at the university. Mrs Addo said the directorate had strengthened its monitoring system to prevent further occurrences of such cases. This time applicants for the study leave would have to present their original certificates for vetting. Source: Daily Graphic