He therefore called for a new crop of teacher professionalism that integrated moral purpose.

Mr Djangmah who said this at the seventh Excellence Award ceremony of the Institute of Education of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), underscored the importance of teachers to national development.

He said it was imperative to establish right attitude to rules and regulations, adherence to honesty and upright behaviour among teachers to safeguard the future generation of the nation. “A corrupt and incompetent teacher is not only a bad individual but also a harbinger of a corrupt and incompetent generation”, he said, adding, "A nation full of corrupt teachers is a nation at risk. Every approaching day announces doom and destruction”.

The Excellence Award, instituted by the Professional Board of the Institute of Education in 2010 was to help whip up the study and interest of teacher trainees to strive for excellence. This year's ceremony which was on the theme: “The Teacher: An Agent of National Development”, saw 20 teacher trainees being awarded for their outstanding performance after their training programmes at the various Colleges of Education. They comprised of five national best and 15 zonal best from the five zones of the country namely; Western and Central, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo, Greater Accra and Eastern, Volta and the Upper East, Upper West and Northern.

Hussein Buhari from the Jasikan College of Education was adjudged the overall best among the 20 awardees from the Colleges of Education. The University would offer scholarships to the five national best awardees to enable them pursue a post-diploma degree programme in Basic Education.

Mr Djangmah bemoaned the way teachers were trained, how schools were organised, how educational hierarchy operated and the way political decision makers treated educators in the country.

According to him, as agents of national development and architects of the nation’s future generation it demanded that only the best and most intelligent and competent people were trained for the teaching profession. He said “the quality of a nation depended on the quality of its educational systems and its teachers”.

He said academic freedom of teachers to publish, speak and write about issues of national and intellectual importance must be protected to help improve standards of education and creative engagement of teachers in national development. The Director of the Institute of Education, UCC, Prof Fredrick Ocansey said the excellence awards scheme was instituted to encourage academic performance of teacher trainees as well as improve their way of studying.

He explained that this year’s award was an increase of last year’s performance, which witnessed 10 awards from the five zones. He expressed the optimism that the institution of the awards would help cultivate the culture of excellence among teacher trainees across the country.

The Pro Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Prof. George K. T. Oduro admonished the new teachers to ensure that they contributed significantly towards the development of their communities beyond the classroom. He urged them to be humble in all their endeavours, saying, “Humility can send you to places money cannot do”.