NATIONAL TEACHERS AWARD SCHEME IS MOTIVATIONAL (PAGE 11)

TWO past winners of the National Best Teacher Awards have described as motivational, inspirational and laudable the institution of the National Best Teacher/Worker Award Scheme by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) about 14 years ago.
They said the scheme which sought to honour hard work, commitment and sacrifices of teachers had made them role models in their respective areas of service.
An English Language teacher and Assistant Headmistress of the Sunyani Senior High School (SHS) in the Brong Ahafo Region, Madam Doris Naana Marfo, and a teacher of the Obokrom-Kumasi District Assembly (D/A) Junior High School (JHS) in the Gomoa West District of the Central Region, Faustina Gyeketey, the 2005 and 2007 winners said since they received their respective awards, the honour had greatly impacted positively on their personal lives as well as that of their students and the community in which they lived.
Madam Marfo and Madam Gyeketey expressed their satisfaction and appreciation of the scheme when they spoke to the Daily Graphic at the Jubilee Park in Sunyani during the 14th National Best Teacher Awards ceremony on Tuesday.
They were also happy with the improvement in the awards each year, and expressed the hope that more teachers would be motivated to work hard to become proud recipients of future national awards.
In all, 52 teachers were honoured for their hard work, patriotism and dedication to duty, with the overall national best teacher award going to Mr Sadique Boateng, a 42-year-old Integrated Science and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) teacher of T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
The two past recipients however expressed regret at the failure of the organisers of this year’s programme to invite them as role models to the function but they decided to attend on their own.
They said, they would spearhead the formation of an association of all past award winners, with the view to identifying ways of ensuring that whatever experiences they had gone through after receiving the awards could be shared with the Ghana Education Service (GES) as well as the MoESS.
They appealed to corporate and financial institutions to sponsor the national best teacher awards day in order to make the packages for awardees more attractive, as that of the national farmers’ day, which is sponsored by the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB)
Madam Marfo later said the award had changed her life entirely as people accord her a lot of respect and recognition, adding that currently she was into promoting girls education at the community level as well as undertaking a reading project in basic schools where she normally presents reading materials to schools she visited.
She expressed gratitude to SEDCO, EPP Books and other writers who have been assisting her in the reading project, and appealed for bigger sponsorship to extend the project to other basic schools.
Madam Marfo disclosed that she had completed the four bedroom house of her choice at the Airport residential area in the Sunyani Municipality with the prize money of Gh¢30,000 she received as the 2005 overall national best teacher.
She, however, appealed to well wishers, spirited individuals and corporate organisations to aid her to construct a wall and the landscaping on the compound of the house.
For her part, Ms Gyeketey, who is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Home Economics Education at the University of Winneba (UEW) in the Central Region said ever since she won the award she had received several invitations to speak at several fora.
She disclosed that her bankers, the Akyempim Rural Bank in the Central Region, gave her a television set and Gh¢50 cash in recognition of hard work which won her the 2007 award.
Currently, Ms Gyeketey said she was sponsoring the education of three girls at the SHS level and disclosed that she was at the roofing stage of her four bedroom house, for which she used the GH¢40,000 cash prize given her for the construction of her house at Agona Swedru in the Central Region, the place of her choice.
She suggested that in future, the winner of the National Best Teacher Award should be awarded a scholarship to pursue further studies.