MOE explains delay of best teacher award

The Ministry of Education on Monday said the cheque for 150 million cedis meant to build a house for the 2001 best teacher was ready. The only obstacle to the presentation of the cheque is the inability of the winner to fulfil certain conditions to ensure that he benefited fully from his prize, it said.

According to a Ghana News Agency report Ahmed Ayuba, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, said in an interview that the Ministry had set certain conditions on the issuance of the cheque.

Among the conditions are that the best teacher gets a befitting house to be built in a place of his own choice and that the cheque would only be issued if the winner brought documents of the site plan of the house.

He said since the declaration of the winner, frantic efforts had been made by the ministry to get the site plan of the house so as to issue the cheque for the construction of the house.

Mr Ayuba said the ministry was still waiting for the submission of the relevant documents for the cheque to be released to the winner. Mr Joseph Yaw Nyarko of the Ochisco Methodist Junior Secondary School at Ajumako in the Central Region, who won the award last year has been quoted as saying he was yet to receive his prize.

Mr Ayuba explained that the ministry did not want to present the cheque without seeing the site plan of the house, saying this was to ensure that the money was used for its intended purpose.

He appealed to all district directors of education where award winners would emerge to assist in the speedy documentation of relevant materials for claim. He said the ministry was committed to ensuring that the nation's best teachers were recognised and rewarded.