TEMA, ASHAIMAN HONOUR TEACHERS (PAGE 29, NOV 15)

The Tema Metropolitan and Ashaiman Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Service has awarded 30 deserving teachers who excelled in their various subject areas at its 2008 and 2009 Best Teacher Awards Ceremony held in Tema.
The ceremony was on the theme, 'Quality Education in the hands of well-motivated Teachers'.
The awardees were presented with standing fans, table top fridges, 21 inch Sanyo television sets, gas stoves, gas cylinders, wax prints and hampers.
There was no overall best winner but the various winners were adjudged according to the levels and subject areas.
The various categories were kindergarten, primary, basic, junior high school, senior high school, technical and vocational levels and science and mathematics.
Some non-teaching staff of the service were also awarded for their dedication to duty.
The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, in a speech read on his behalf by a director at the Ministry of Education, Mrs Mary Lankai Quaye, observed that the quality of teachers determined the development of a nation.
She noted that teachers played a key role in shaping the human resource of the country and therefore called for motivation from all sectors to encourage them to work harder.
Mrs Quaye was of the view that teachers needed to be well-motivated to enable them to perform their functions as counsellors, teachers and sometimes parents to needy children.
She stated that the government recognised the role of teachers hence the institution of the awards and the introduction of study leave and distance education to encourage them to work harder.
Mrs Quaye appealed to district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to support the programme with resources to make the prizes attractive and motivating.
She urged the teachers to continue to be hardworking to turn out good materials for the country's human resource.
Mrs Quaye congratulated the award winners, noting that all teachers worked hard but only a few could be selected for the awards.
The outgoing Metropolitan Director of Education, Mrs Victoria Opoku, outlined some challenges facing the office in Tema.
She said the current office accommodation had been served with ejection notice and the staff were not working under a conducive atmosphere.
Mrs Opoku appealed to the Ministry of Education to help find office accommodation for them.
A representative of the award winners, Mr Godwin Adja, on behalf of other award winners, expressed gratitude to the organisers but urged them to hold the event annually instead of waiting for two years.
The chairman for the event, Mr Emmanuel Adjei Annang, who is the Greater Accra representative on the Council of State, gave the assurance that he would help the Tema Metropolitan Directorate of the GES to acquire an office to enable them to perform their functions effectively.
He commended the organisers for the effort they put in the event to award the deserving teachers and congratulated the awardees on their hard work.