Ben Addo (left) an official of Gold Fields presenting a citation to one of the teachers
Gold Fields Ghana Limited (GGL) Tarkwa mine in the Western Region has held its annual Teachers’ Awards ceremony aimed at honouring teachers in the Tarkwa –Nsuaem Municipality and Prestea Huni/Valley district for their hard work and contributions towards the improvement of education in the company’s operational area.
In all, about 30 teachers, including the outgoing Municipal Director of Education in Tarkwa-Nsueam, were presented with awards.
The event, which was under the Gold Fields Foundation, formed part of the company’s annual education sector social responsibility programme in which dozens of students have been offered scholarships and bursaries.
The category of awards included best school, head teacher of the year, best science teacher, best mathematics teacher, best teacher-technical and outstanding teacher-nursery, kindergarten, primary and Junior High School among others.
Among other prizes, the teachers were given refrigerators, flat screen television sets, gas cookers, micro waves and citations, while some schools were also given desk-top computers.
In an address read on his behalf, the General Manager of Gold Fields Ghana Limited-Tarkwa Mine, Stephen Osei-Bempah noted that the company’s programme, which was launched last year, had helped to enhance access to quality education for children in its host communities.
“We know that growth and development of every society depend on the quality of education given by a good and motivated teacher”, he indicated.
He continued “Through this scheme we have increased access to education by providing scholarships and bursaries to young men and women who otherwise would not have attained second cycle and tertiary education”.
He revealed that this year alone the gold mining company has earmarked an amount of $4,374,415 as total cost for projects and programmes and that a third of the amount would go into education.
“In our bid to improve the quality of education, Gold Fields Ghana has provided modern classroom blocks and fully furnished teachers’ quarters in eight host communities of the company”, he added.
He disclosed that last year about 150 people were awarded scholarships and bursaries to pursue secondary and tertiary education adding “this brings to 1,245 the number of community youth who have benefited from the scheme since 2005 when the scheme was introduced”.
“With the introduction of the government’s free education policy, more tertiary students who applied and will qualify for the final selection will be awarded scholarships and bursaries in the next couple of weeks for the 2017/2018 academic year”, he stressed.
The General Manager of Gold Fields Tarkwa –Mine pointed out that the company would continue to improve and sustain benefits sharing to stimulate economic and social development in partnership with local and community authorities and other stakeholders.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Tarkwa