Maltina Teacher of the Year award yielding results —FG

THE federal government has commended the Nigerian Breweries Plc, organiser and sponsor of Maltina Teacher of the Year Award competition among teachers in both public and private secondary schools nationwide, saying the initiative is yielding great dividends.

The permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Sunny Echono, gave the remark at a ceremony to announce the commencement of the 2019 edition of the award held in Lagos, last week.

Major stakeholders in the education sector, including the current champion of the award, Mr Olasunkanmi Opeifa, an English Language teacher at Government Day Secondary School, Karu, Abuja, were in attendance.

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Represented by the director, Basic Education Services and former principal of the Queen’s College, Lagos, Dr Lami Amodu, Echonno said the five-year-old annual award had really boosted teaching and learning as well as education and economic development in Nigeria.

He, however, called on other corporate organisations and individuals to do likewise by joining hands with the government to move the Nigeria’s education to an appreciable height.

Speaking earlier, the corporate adviser of the Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mrs Shade Morgan, noted that the company instituted the competition in 2015 under its social arm, the Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund, to identify and showcase secondary school teachers who have distinguished themselves in imparting the right knowledge and character in their students considered to be future leaders.

She said interested applicants could start submitting entries from last Friday and that they have up to July 22 to do that through a dedicated website, while independent jurists in the academia would assess their entries and carry out other practical assessments of their work and persons.

She also disclosed that a total of 500 and 641 entries were received nationwide in 2017 and 2018 editions respectively, and that more entries are expected this year.

Morgan said the prize for the overall winner of the competition remains a total of N6.5 million, distributed as N500,000 as a state champion, N1 million as a national champion and another N5 million to be spread for consecutive five years equally and also a short course training overseas, while his or her school would get a block of six classrooms and a library.