National Best Teacher awards launched

The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with its stakeholders, has launched the 20th edition of the National Best Teacher Award, themed: “Unite for Quality Education”.

The event instituted to recognize exceptionally hardworking teachers and to motivate others to give of their best would take place at Cape Coast in the Central Region, on Sunday, October 5, to coincide with the World Teacher’s Day Celebration.

Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education, said the objectives of the scheme were to award excellence, professionalism, and dedication in the teaching profession.

It also recognised the complementary role played by the non-teaching staff of the Ghana Education Service for quality education delivery, he said.

He said the importance of quality education in the development of a country could not be over emphasized, therefore, the theme for the celebration was a call to all stakeholders in education to unite in the delivery of quality education.

He announced it was a plan of the Ministry to expand the Awards Scheme to include Best Schools with effect from next year, and explained that a lot had been done to ensure that the initiative was implemented to benefit the whole school, instead of only individual teachers.

Speaking on some interventions made by Government to enhance the performance of teachers, he said 50,000 teachers at the basic level had been trained in the use of ICT in teaching, while 50,000 laptops had been acquired and distributed to teachers across the country.

The Deputy Minister said the Ministry had also embarked on a number of interventions, which aimed at improving on the quality of output of teachers, adding, ‘the current data shows that teacher absenteeism has declined from 27 per cent to 11 per cent’.

Mr. Ablakwa, on behalf of the Ministry, Ghana Education Service, and the National Planning Committee, expressed gratitude to the sponsors for their generous and tireless support and expressed hope that others would emulate them and join in the sponsorship.

He, therefore, tasked the teachers to reflect on their roles and responsibilities as both the government and sponsors would continue to sacrifice a lot to motivate them.

In his welcome address, Mr. Charles Tsegah-Aheto, Director -General of the Ghana Education Service, said year by year teachers across the country had spent time and resources to demonstrate their commitment and interest in promoting quality education and so there was the need to recognize and reward them.

The total numbers of teachers to be awarded this year are 55 at the National level, 360 at the regional level, and 3,312 at the district level.