Maltina Teacher of the Year initiative yielding good results —Minister
By MINISTER of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwukah, has lauded the Nigerian Breweries Plc for organising and sponsoring the Maltina Teacher of the Year award, saying the initiative is yielding desirable results.
He gave the commendation last week in Lagos at the grand finale and award ceremony of this year’s edition of the four- year-old award.
According to him, the story of education development in Nigeria cannot be complete without mentioning Nigerian Breweries’ efforts.
He said the company’s efforts and investment in the education sector in the country across segments, including schools, teachers as well as students, are well noted, urging other companies to do likewise.
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While congratulating the 32-year-old winner of this year’s edition of the award, Mr Olasunkanmi Opeifa from the Government Day Secondary School, Karu, Abuja, and other finalists, Professor Anwukah promised that government would not also relent in boosting education and teaching profession at all levels in the country.
Speaking earlier, the managing director of Nigerian Breweries Plc., Mr. Jordi Borrut Bel, explained that the company 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.
According to him, teachers 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 initiative.
He pointed out that over the years, the company had impacted about 25,000 students with over 400 classrooms, 30 libraries and laboratories built in over 40 communities across the country – and promised to do more.
In his own remarks, the winner, who teaches English language and hails from Ogun State, commended Nigerian Breweries for the initiative and enjoined other corporate organisations to follow the example as a way of boosting teaching profession in the country.
He maintained that teaching is not about earning a living, but about having a strong passion for humanity and emotional stability to impart knowledge regardless of the challenges.
For his effort, Opeifa went home with a plaque, N1 million plus additional N500,000 as a state champion from Abuja.
He will also get another N1 million every year for the next five years and his school will get a block of six classrooms for producing him.
The first and second runners-up, Messrs Olalekan Adeeko, a Computer Studies teacher at the Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta, Ogun State, and Samuel Popoola, a Physics teacher with Deeper Life High School, Akure, Ondo State, received N1 million and N750,000 respectively, plus another N500,000 as champion from their states.
Every other state champion also went home with N500,000, bringing the total cash prize of the award to N22.25 million.
Since inception, the Maltina Teacher of the Year award has produced four grand winners: Rose Nkemdilim Obi from Anambra State (2015), Imoh Essien from Akwa Ibom State (2016) and Felix Ariguzo from Delta State (2017) and the current champion.
All of them are from public schools.
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