16 Teachers honoured in Ashaiman municipality

Female teachers from the Ashaiman Municipality dominated the list of awardees at the 2017/2018 Ashaiman Teacher Prize held at the Don Bosco Institute near Tema at the weekend.

The ceremony, on the theme: “An inspired teacher, a Prerequisite for Quality Education, however, saw Mr Elvis Wallace Bruce of the Ashaiman Number Six Junior High School taking home the overall award as the most outstanding teacher in the municipality for 2018.

Mr Bruce will, therefore, participate in the Greater Accra Regional Best Teacher Prize to qualify him for the National Teacher Prize Awards for 2019.

In all, a total of 16 teachers from both public and private schools in the municipality were awarded from a total of 34 applicants of the awards.

The teachers were awarded based on good moral behaviour, good academic performance, good pupil/teacher relationship and good community relations.

Each of them took home refrigerators, gas cooker stoves and table top fridges as their prize.

Awardees

Madam Mary Ama Asigbetse and Ms Commey Ama Amponsah of the St Augustines Roman Catholic Primary and Presby A Basic schools respectively took home the award for best teacher in the primary category, while Mr Ebenezer Gorleku of Nii Amui Junior High School (JHS) took the award for the JHS category.

Ms Rebecca Akrong of the Ashaiman Senior High School (ASHAISEC) also received the best teacher in the SHS category.

Other winners were Messrs Micahel Degbe, Bernard Tagoe, Ms Georgina Badoo and Mr Nathaniel Otubuah.

The rest were Ms Faustina Tukpey, Ms Bathsheba Sackey and Mr Alberic Monlade of Kingscourt International School, who took home the best teacher awards for the private school category.

Speakers

At the event, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashaiman, Mr Ernest Norgbey, indicated that the takeover of the Don Bosco building which previously housed the Ashaiman Technical Institute (ASHTEC), also known as the Don Bosco Institute, was affecting teaching and learning at the school.

He said after the takeover of the facility by the property owners, students were relocated to the already congested Ashaiman cluster of schools, where they shared classrooms and facilities with pupils, pointing out that “the present situation of the school is not the best and I am hoping the requisite accommodation will be provided by the end of the year to provide a good environment for teaching and learning”.

He lauded the organisation of the competition, saying it would enhance dedication and commitment to work, in support of economic growth and development in the municipality.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Ashaiman, Mr Albert Boakye Okyere, in his remarks underscored the need for authorities to take a critical look at the shift system of education, saying apart from creating avenues for many children to become school dropouts, it could also influence truancy.

He said he was collaborating with the Volta River Authority (VRA) to develop an electronic library (E-Library) and technology learning centres to keep pupils and students in the metropolis busy at all times.

The MCE also hinted that the assembly was in touch with the Ministry of Education to address the present infrastructural challenges facing the technical institute, and was hoping that some progress would be made by the next academic year so the students could be relocated from the basic school where they were occupying presently.