The search for the new best teacher in secondary schools in Nigeria has begun as the submission of entries for the 2021 edition of the Maltina Teacher-of-the-Year award competition kicked-off last week in Lagos.
The Corporate Affairs Director, Nigerian Breweries Plc, the organiser and sponsor of the competition, Mrs Sade Morgan, announced the kick-off at a news conference in Lagos, saying the seven-year-old initiative has yielded tremendous impact on teachers, the teaching profession and education sector generally in the country.
According to her, Nigerian Breweries came up with the Maltina Teacher-of-the-Year award on the platform of its social arm, Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund, to identify, showcase and celebrate exemplary teachers in both the public and private secondary schools nationwide and the entries are free of charge.
Teachers, she said, hardly get the recognition they deserve in spite of the crucial role they play in determining the quality of education and the future of a country, hence the determination to sustain the initiative.
She pointed out that over the years; the company had impacted the education sector across levels and promised to do more.
Mrs Morgan explained that a total of N6.5m cash reward is awaiting the overall winner of the competition just as it applied to previous winners as well as a plaque and certificate.
She said while the grand winner would go home with N1 million as a national champion and another N500, 000 as a state champion on the day of the award ceremony, which will come up in October, when the winner will be unveiled, the person will also be paid N1 million yearly for the next five years provided he or she remains a teacher.
The person, who must be certified by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), she added, will also be entitled to all-expenses-paid short training courses overseas and his or her school would equally get a block of six classrooms or another project of priority for producing him or her.
She also noted that while the first and second runner-ups will receive N1 million and N750,000 respectively, plus another N500,000 as champion from their respective states, the other state champions will go home with N500,000 each, bringing the total cash prize of the award to several millions.
She said last year’s edition attracted 55 per cent increase in entries over that of the year before it and that more people are expected to participate this year.
In their separate remarks, the registrar of TRCN, ProfessorJosiah Ajiboye, who joined virtually and the national treasurer of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr Segun Raheem, said the initiative is a really rewarding experience for teachers and the teaching profession.
They both asked other corporate bodies to take the example of Nigeria Breweries Plc to invest hugely in the nation’s education sector so as to take Nigeria and its people out of poverty.
Ajiboye added that investment in human capital is the best for any country to attain economic greatness.
Sharing her testimonial at the event via a digital platform, the current champion, who is a female teacher with Concordia College, Jimeta, Yola, Adamawa State, Oluwabunmi Adani, commended Nigerian Breweries for the initiative, saying the award has added great values not only to the winners including her but to the teaching profession in the country.
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