Female journalists emerge top winners

Accra, July 1, GNA- Female journalists from Angola, Benin and Nigeria emerged top winners of the 2005 Akintola Fatoyinbo Africa Education Journalism Award announced in Accra on Friday. The winners: Rosalina Mateta of Angola, Bokula Olatunji of Nigeria and Rose Ablavi Akakpo of Benin, were announced at the end of a three-day meeting of a Jury on the entries in the Ghanaian capital.

Rosalina Mateta won the first prize for Portuguese language entries with her story "A Outra Licao das Escuolas (The Alternative Lesson from school") published in Journal do Angola, about a gang violence in schools.

Bola Olatunji won that of the English Language entries with her article "A slap on the dignity of man" telling a story about poor living conditions of students in Nigeria universities and published in ThisDay. The entry of Rose Akakpo entitled "La Fonction Enseignante la Vocation se Meurt (The Teaching Profession; the Call is Dying) published in le Pont au Quotidien of Benin secured her the first prize in the entries in the French language. Notably, Olatunji and Akakpo were first Prize Winners in their respective language groups at the maiden edition of the competition three years ago.

Second Prize Winners for the competition were also announced. Jose Mario Correia Cape Verde won the second prize for the Portuguese entries; Joe Ombuor from Kenya for the English category and Moussa Sadio from Senegal The first Prize Winners receive a cash prize of 2,000 euros, while the second place winners receive 1,000 euros.

In addition to the cash prize, winners and their chief editors would be invited to take part in a study tour that includes seminars on current education issues and developments in journalism and media management.

Announcing the results for competition for which over 700 articles were entered, Prof. Alfred Opubor, Coordinator of the African Association for the Development Education in Africa (ADEA), which created the Award, praised the increasing quality of entries to the competition. He said journalism must be coupled with basic skills in education to make effective and constructive suggestions to development of education in Africa.

Professor Opubor said the Jury's reports and detailed evaluation of the entries would provide useful information improving training materials and programmes.

Deputy Minister of Education and Sports, Mr Kwame Ampofo Twumasi, congratulated the name winners, hoping that they would use the opportunity to strengthen their professional development and specialisation in education reporting. He said the Ministry was conscious of the contributionS a well-informed media could make to education development and reform programmes, and challenged Ghanaian and other Africa journalists to take education seriously in their work.

Established in 2001 by the ADEA, the Akintola Fatoyinbo Africa Education Journalism Award is to stimulate public discussion and debate on education issues through enhancing media understanding and competence in education coverage. It also aims at encouraging African journalists and media institutions to specialise in education journalism.

Now in its fourth edition, the Award has been organised by ADEA in the context of the training programme initiated by its Working Group on Communication for Education and Development (COMED)