The New Juaben South Municipal Assembly in collaboration with the Municipal Education Directorate for the first time has instituted an award scheme to reward hardworking teachers in the municipality.
The award scheme forms part of joint effort by the Municipal Assembly and Municipal Education Committee (MUEC) to motivate teachers to help improve learning outcomes of students.
The award ceremony which is scheduled to take place in December 2023 seeks to honour teachers who excel in the categories of best KG teacher ,best primary teacher , best JHS teacher, best SHS teacher.
Other categories are overall best teacher, best none teaching staff , best public basic school, best science teacher, best mathematics teacher, best SHS school, best special education teacher, best private basic school , best office staff, best in leadership and administration basic and SHS level as well as school with the best environment JHS and SHS categories.
Addressing the gathering at the launch of the New Juaben South Municipal Teachers Prize and Awards Ceremony 2023 in Koforidua, the Municipal Chief Executive for New Juaben South Hon. Isaac Apaw Gyasi stated that rewarding teachers is one of the major factors which contributes to the improvement of the learning outcomes of students.
“We had a director who felt that the performance of our students in New Juaben South were going down so he suggested we should try something new , and the new thing he wanted to try is to assign teachers at their various specialized subject areas that they have degree for”
” There was the need for us to reorient the entire system to make sure that the teachers are placed in their areas and above all to motivate them through this award scheme therefore we decided to pass the new strategies through the Municipal Education Committee (MUEC) for implementation and finally MUEC thought that there is the need to motivate our teachers”
“I think that it is something that we need to sustain and it cannot be the only the assembly we have teamed up with the Member of Parliament Hon. Michael Okyere Baafi , the business community , traditional authorities and major stakeholders in the municipality and these are all going to help our children to perform well “
According to the MCE , even though education in Ghana has undergone many reformation over the past few years aimed towards improving the learning outcomes of students , it is also important to recognize and reward teachers at least every year in all municipalities since it will also encourage teachers to go the extra miles to improve on their teaching skills and the learning outcomes of students.
The MCE also said , teachers are pivotal to improving learning outcomes of students therefore the need to institute an award schemes for teachers to motivate them and to help drive government policies in education with the ultimate aim of improving students performance.
The Municipal Director of Education for New Juaben South Mustapha Haruna Appiah on his part said the introduction of the teacher’s award scheme in the municipality is to motivate teachers to work hard towards government new educational policies of building students to adopt critical thinking skills and be problem solvers in our society.
He added that even though the teachers in the municipality are doing well over the years but have not received any tangible rewards yet , hence to break that chain there should be an extrinsic reward to serve as a symbol of motivation to hardworking teachers in the municipality.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Ansah Stephen
