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Mr Michael Tungbani, Sissala East District Director of Education, said a corrupt and decadent class of teachers could harm a nation more seriously than a class of perverted judiciary, army, police, bureaucracy, politicians or technocrats. He said the importance of a teacher as nation builder could not be over emphasised, therefore, a corrupt and incompetent teacher was not only a bad individual, but also the harbinger of a corrupt and incompetent generation. �A nation with corrupt teachers is a nation at risk; every coming day announces the advent of its coming destruction,� he said. Mr Tungbani said this in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Kenneth Yoho, Public Relations Officer during the week celebration of the Untrained Teachers Diploma in Basic Education (UTDBE) Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Tumu College of Education in the Sissala East District. Mr Tungbani, who spoke on: �The Role of the Teacher in Nation Building,� said a nation was built by its citizens who were molded by teachers also trained by teacher-educators. Mr Tungbani said any developing country like Ghana deserved to have good teachers, adding that good teachers could be produced if only there were good teacher education programmes to train dedicated teachers. �Knowledge received without a teacher�s guidance can be compared to a blind man walking without a stick,� he said, adding that because of this, teachers needed to have high level of commitment towards their duties and responsibilities. Mr Morrow Issahaku, Principal of the Tumu College of Education, said the theme: �UTDBE Programme: A Key to Solving the Teacher Supply Problem in Ghana,� was not only appropriate but relevant in the face of academic and professional training of teachers. He said the first cohort of the UTDBE programme was sponsored by the Government between 2004- 2009 in the three regions of the north and the Afram Plains in the Eastern Region in which over 24,000 untrained teachers were trained to obtain diploma, thereby, addressing the teacher shortage and quality in deprived areas. Mr Issahaku said two years down the line a survey revealed that there were still about 5,378 pupil teachers in these areas compelling the Northern Principals Conference (PRINCOF) to start a second cohort of the UTDBE programme. �The Northern PRINCOF considered that these pupil teachers who were still serving in the classrooms needed to be trained and the logistics needed for the training by way of tutors, modules and infrastructure were available and relevant for the purpose and so, in April 2014 this programme was launched�, he noted. Mr Issahaku cited inadequate hall accommodation for the female students who constituted the majority, health issues and inability to pay fees as some of the challenges. He appealed to the district directors of education to consider employing the UTDBE students after they had successfully completed their training, especially those who were currently not engaged as pupil teachers.