21st National Best Teacher Award Scheme launched
The Ministry of Education last Tuesday launched the 21st edition of the National Best Teacher Award and the first National Best Schools Awards Scheme with a call on teachers to reflect on their roles and responsibilities as the government and sponsors continue to motivate them.
The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Pre-tertiary Education, Mr Alex Kyeremeh, who launched the awards, called on teachers to rise up to the task by working even harder to justify the institution of the award scheme and other interventions by the government to enhance performance.
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“I am sure our sponsors and all beneficiaries of the products of education will appreciate this broad concept of recognising teachers’ contribution to quality education delivery,” he said.
Theme and awardees
The award scheme, on the theme: “Empowering teachers, building sustainable societies,” is slated for Tamale in the Northern Region on October 5, 2015.
In all, a total of 412 teachers will be honoured at the national level, while 360 and 3,312 teachers will be honoured at the regional and district levels, respectively.
Sponsors and pledges
A number of the sponsors of the award scheme, who were at the function, pledged various items and money towards the event.
They included SIC Life Insurance, which pledged goods worth GH¢90,000 and a life insurance cover to selected winners, RLg pledged $20,000, Karkork Publishers, GH¢10,000 cash and books worth GH¢9,000 and IPMC pledged to render special support to the best schools.
Others are Sedco Publishers, which pledged GH¢10,000 and books worth GH¢C5,000 and Aktech Suppliers which pledged cash and books totalling GH¢15,000.
Mr Kyeremeh said the theme for the celebration was a wake-up call to all stakeholders to appreciate that motivating and empowering teachers to efficiently and effectively discharge their role in quality education delivery is in the right direction.
“It is, therefore, important to remind ourselves that the main purpose of the award scheme is to award excellence, professionalism and the dedication of both teaching and non-teaching staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES) for quality education delivery,” he said.
Repackaged scheme
He announced that the award scheme had been repackaged into the National Best School and Best Teacher Awards to ensure that the best school was also recognised as a way of motivating and recognising the work of teachers as a team in education delivery.
Mr Kyeremeh thanked the sponsors for their selfless contribution towards the success of the scheme each year, adding “On behalf of the Minister of Education, the Ghana Education Service and the National Planning Committee of the Best Teacher Award Scheme, I wish, therefore, to say ayeeko to our valued sponsors.”
Performance improvement
Touching on the government’s effort to empower teachers for a better performance, he said 31,000 teachers were currently undergoing training in the use of ICT in teaching and 30,000 laptops were being distributed to teachers across the country.
“In a related development, 700 basic and senior high school teachers have received training in Mathematics to sharpen their skills, while 250 science teachers and school laboratory assistants have also been trained,” he announced.
The Chief Director of the Ministry, Mr Enoch H. Cobbinah, said the ministry acknowledged and recognised the high sense of support by the sponsors to honour the nation’s teachers and schools.
He appealed to the sponsors to be more generous this year since the Best School Award had been added to the scheme.
