Rita Oppong receiving her GH¢100,000 prize and other dignitaries
A 41-year-old teacher, Rita Oppong of the Sowa Din 2 Junior High School (JHS) at Adenta in the Greater Accra Region, has been adjudged as the Best Teacher for the Year 2016.
Ms Oppong won a three-bedroom house worth GH¢100,000.
President John Dramani Mahama, supported by the Education Minister, presented the keys of the house to an elated Ms Oppong, who has been teaching for the past 18 years.
The first runner up, Samuel Kofi Boateng, 42, of Ghana Secondary Technical School in Takoradi in the Western Region also took home a Toyota pick-up.
The second runner-up, Suleman Inusa of Sacred Heart SHS at Nsoatre in the Brong Ahafo Region, took home a Daweoo saloon car.
In all, 43 teachers and 32 schools and institutions received various consolation prizes such as laptops, fridges, deep freezers, gas cylinders, set of books and cash prizes.
The awards ceremony, which was held at Sunyani Jubilee Park under the theme, ‘Valuing Teachers, Improving their Status,’ was also attended by deputy ministers in charge of tertiary and pre-tertiary, parliamentarians, Council of State members and some functionaries of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Representatives of teacher unions- Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT)- were also in attendance.
Addressing the gathering, President Mamaha underscored the important role that teachers play in the education sector of the country.
He said his government and for that matter the Ministry of Education have improved education not only in privileged schools in the cities but in less endowed schools in the rural areas.
According to him, some rural schools won some of the categories in this year’s awards.
He said his government’s intervention by training mathematics and science teachers resulted in an improvement in the performance of students in mathematics and science this year at the SHS level, adding that ‘A’ scores jumped from 25% to 32% in mathematics and 23.2% to 48.5% in science and there was also an improvement in this year’s BECE results.
He thanked teachers and urged them to continue to show commitment to their work.
From Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani