Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister has appealed to teachers to continue to show commitment and passion for their job.

He said given the considerable improvement in schools infrastructure, the expectation is that they would work hard to raise academic performance.

He was speaking at the annual regional education sector review meeting in Kumasi.

It brought together Directors of Education, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, Assembly members, parents, religious leaders and other stakeholders.

Dr Agyemang-Mensah expressed discomfort with the not too impressive performance of the public schools, a situation that has forced many parents to turn to the private ones.

He said things would have to change for the better given the fact that there are 38,128 professionally trained teachers, representing 79% of the basic schools teacher population of 48,257 in the region.

Even with the remaining 10,134 untrained teachers, they are being motivated to pursue Diploma in Education Distance Programme.

The Regional Minister asked the education authorities to do everything to strengthen supervision in the schools and ensure effective use of the contact hours.**