Mr Herbert Kuah-Dickson, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Nzema-East has assured teaches in the Municipality of the Assembly’s readiness to provide accommodation for them.
He said the move was to enable teachers posted to the area to stay and curb the rural-urban drift in the teaching profession.
Mr Kuah-Dickson said this during Teachers’ Awards ceremony in Axim in the Western Region.
In all 25 hardworking teachers were honoured for their exceptional performances in promoting good quality education delivery in the area.
They received awards such as four motor bikes, deep freezers, flat screen Television Sets and cash as their prizes.
The overall best teacher, Mr Stephen Mensah of the Kwame Nkrumah Senior High School received GHc10,000.00 cash, a motor bike and a plaque, for his outstanding performance in the teaching and learning process.
Mr Kuah-Dickson said next year’s award ceremony would be on accommodation for teachers since it was the major problem facing professionals who were posted to the area.
He assured the teachers that the Assembly would liaise with the office of the Member of Parliament (MP) to cater for their needs and interests, since they were the bedrock of national development.
The MCE appealed to the Minister of Education to post more teachers to the Nzema-East Municipality to deal with the teacher deficit in schools.
Mr Kofi Arko-Nokoe, the MP for Evalue Adjomoro-Gwira, said it was the first time the MP’s office and the Municipal Assembly had organised such a mega awards ceremony to honour teachers in the Municipality, for their meritorious services towards quality education delivery.
He said having been a teacher before entering Parliament, he understood their plight which informed him to motivate them.
He said teachers played a pivotal role in churning out the human resource base of various sectors of the economy and deserved to be honoured to boost their morale.
Mr Arko-Nokoe said the award formed part of measures to stem the rural urban drift of staff in the Ghana Education Service.
He said his office would team up with the Assembly to visit student teachers in training colleges by paying a chunk of their fees and motivate them to come back to teach in the Municipality.
The MP promised to extend the awards to other category of workers such as nurses, security services and traditional rulers.
Mr Nathaniel Kofi Affum, the Municipal Director of Education said the Municipality faced a teacher deficit in most schools especially in rural communities.
Some basic schools in the area which were supposed to have at least 15 teachers had less than four and, in some cases, the kindergarten department had only one trained teacher, he said.
He said despite the odds some teachers had given off their best and deserved to be recognised.
Mr Stephen Mensah, the overall best teacher from the Kwame Nkrumah Senior High School at Nsein reminded teachers that good quality education delivery in the 21st century, hinged on critical thinking, digital literacy, communication and problem-solving skills.
He re-echoed Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of lifting the nation towards progress, dignity and endless possibility through investments in education.
Mr Mensah identified some of the challenges facing the Kwame Nkrumah Senior High School, as the poor road leading to the headmaster’s bungalow, and the Legion block which was now being used as classroom to prevent a double track system.
Other challenges were the shortage of teachers especially for Science and Visual Arts, equipping the ICT laboratory in a digital era, scholarship schemes for teachers to pursue higher degrees and the need for the establishment of tertiary institutions in the Municipality.
Awulae Attibrukusu III, the Paramount Chief of the Lower Axim Traditional Area, who chaired the function, lauded the MP and MCE for the initiative saying it had never happened in the Municipality.
He thanked the awardees for the splendid performance and urged them to translate the awards to students’ performance.
Awulae Attibrukusu noted that the Municipal records in education were poor and hoped that the awards were one avenue to motivate teachers to work extra hard.
GNA
