2023 Ghana Teacher Prize: Faith Aku Dzakpasu Adjudged Ghana’s Most Outstanding Teacher For 2023

Faith Aku Dzakpasu, a teacher at GRETA ‘D’ Shepherd Two Basic School in the Greater Accra region has been adjudged the most outstanding teacher for the year 2023.

For her prize, Faith Aku Dzakpasu was presented with a prototype of a three-bedroom apartment to be built at a place of her choice in any part of Ghana, one million Ghana cedis worth of insurance from the State Insurance Company (SIC) and 1000 exercise books.

 

 

 

 

The first runner-up award went to Isabella Wussa-Tetteh of Sege D/A Primary in the Greater Accra region and for her prize took home a 4×4 Pick Up truck, one million Ghana cedis worth of insurance cover from SIC, and 1000 exercise books.

 

 

 

The second runner-up position on the other hand went to Fredous Idi-Amin of Ogbojo Presbyterian Basic School who also took home a brand new saloon vehicle, one million Ghana cedis insurance cover from SIC, and 1000 exercise books.

 

 

 

Other awards presented were the Best Junior High School Teacher, Best Primary School Teacher, Best Primary Teacher, Best Senior High, and Best Technical Teacher among others.

Aside from these, a new award was presented to Mr Simon Boateng, from the St Monica’s College of Education, Asante Mampong for being the Best Tutor from all the colleges of education in Ghana and took home a 4×4 Pick Up truck.

 

Address

Speaking at the awards ceremony, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, praised teachers in Ghana for their dedication and commitment towards the development of the nation through education.

 

 

He explained that the huge investment being made in the education sector in the country would not yield any result without the teacher.

President Akufo-Addo stated that the role of teachers in the training of the right manpower for the nation cannot be underestimated and pledged to continue supporting the sector to ensure that effective teaching and learning take place in all schools across the country.

He mentioned the payment of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) allowance to teachers, the provision of laptops to teachers, upgrading of Diploma certificates to Degrees for Colleges of Education among others as some of the initiatives put in place to improve education development in the country.

President Nana Akufo-Addo has said that under the government’s new comprehensive national teacher policy, the distribution of laptop computers, enhancing of skills set and institution of appropriate welfare incentives have evidently translated into improved effectiveness for our educators.

According to Akufo-Addo, the ministry of education and the National Teaching Council’s implementation of these policies and programmes at both the pre-service and in-service level have ensured the sustained production and maintenance of the quality teachers needed in the education transformation agenda.

He said that, as a mark towards improving teacher quality and skill set, the National Teaching Council (NTC) instituted the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination which has ensured that graduates recruited to teach have met the professional standards set by the Regulator and that they are fit for purpose in this very important area.

Additionally, the Ministry of Education, through the NTC, he stated, has institutionalised a point-based continuous professional development system that ensures that our teachers do not remain stale, but stay competitive and relevant in the ever-dynamic world of knowledge and skills.

Within the same period, the NPP government, he said, towards ensuring the success of teachers’ continuous professional development, introduced the Continuous Professional Development allowance to enable teachers afford Continuous Professional Development programmes.

“Introducing the GH¢1,200 Continuous Professional Development Allowance, paying an intervention allowance amounting to GH¢65 million for senior high school teachers for the 2022/2023 academic year, implementing categories two and three allowances for district and regional directors of education, and ensuring a thirty percent (30%) salary increase for all teachers in 2023,” will go a long way to motivate teachers to deliver more, he said.

He also touched on the mass distribution of laptop computers to every teacher to improve the digital skills of teachers, adding that, “I have tasked the Minister for Education, personally, to ensure that those few teachers yet to receive their laptops join the overwhelming majority who have received theirs.”

President Akufo-Addo was addressing teachers and educationists at the 6th edition of the Ghana Teacher Prize, on Thursday (5 October) held at the Ghana Secondary Technical School, in Takoradi.

These key interventions, he indicated is testament to the NPP government’s commitment to the ‘Teacher First’ policy which ensures that “our teachers, who are central to all education reforms, are fully tooled, skilled and supported to deliver quality learning outcomes to support our development aspirations.”

President Akufo-Addo also added that just as the “Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP), have trained 75,000 teachers in Teaching and Learning in a Digital Age” at a time when the use and knowledge of technological products and tools is a pre-requisite to 21st century teaching and learning.

Continuing, he said, “with the implementation of the Standard Based Curriculum, we have introduced Professional Learning Community Programmes, as well as Continuous Professional Development Days, in our schools to enable teachers take advantage and sharpen their skills.”

President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that, with essential focus on the benefits of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication and digital literacy, all starts with a good teacher, the NTC, at the pre-service level, in collaboration with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, introduced the National Teacher Education Curriculum Framework in 2018.

“This resulted in raising the minimum qualification to teach in Ghana to a bachelor’s degree. Five (5) years after the implementation of the curriculum, steps are being taken to review it to keep pace with global dynamics. Undoubtedly, improvement of quality in the teacher education institutions is a priority to Government, hence our focus on improving infrastructure and other learning resources in our colleges of education,” he added.
Assurance

The President assured all teachers who have not yet received their Laptops under the One Teacher One Laptop project, that everything possible would be done to ensure that they received theirs and called on the Education Minister to do everything possible to ensure that the outstanding ones were presented to the deserving teachers.

President Akufo-Addo lauded the NTC and all other institutions which contributed in diverse ways towards the awards for their commitment towards honouring the nation’s gallant teachers

The President was happy the huge investment being made in the education sector has started yielding good results citing the good grades made by this year’s students who sat for the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) which recorded very high scores in all subjects.

 

 

Commendation

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister for Education was full of praise to the President for his commitment and interest in the development of education in the country.

 

 

 

He assured the President of his readiness to continue working very hard towards the attainment of the best education for the nation since education was the driving force behind the development of every country.

The Education Minister appealed to all stakeholders in the education space to continue working very hard towards the transformation of the country through education

Dr Adutwum stated that “we are not just providing education for the nation’s youth but we are positioning the nation to become a giant in various facets with the training of people with critical thinking skills and knowledge that is required towards the development of the nation’s economy.

The Registrar of the NTC, Dr Christian Addai-Poku, praised the sponsors and other institutions which played various roles towards the honouring of the teachers as a way of motivating and appreciating them for their roles played.

He pledged to continue working very hard to ensure that the quality of teaching in schools was improved by putting in place the right initiatives to ensure that the quality of instruction in schools was maintained.

Dr Addai-Poku called for something to be done to help reduce the high teacher attrition situation in the country which posed a great danger to the nation’s development.

 

 

 

 

THANK YOU for constantly reading stories on MyGhanaMedia.com, a news publishing website from Ghana. Kindly like, follow, comment, and SHARE stories on all social media platforms for more entertaining updates!