A tutor from Tarkwa Senior High School, Francis Archer, last Friday went home with a $14,000 brand new Suzuki saloon car, after emerging as the overall best teacher for the 2024 edition of the Duker Teachers and Health Workers Award.
Archer beats 21 other teachers for the prestigious prize.
The Duker Teacher and Health Workers Award was initiated by the Tarkwa Nsuaem Legislator, George Mireku Duker, three years ago.
The intent is to motivate and award hard-working teachers in the municipality.
This year’s edition saw the legislator introduce the maiden award for health workers in the municipality.
In all, 21 teachers were awarded from categories such as non-teaching staff, KG category, primary category, JHS category, SHS/TVET category, head teacher category and overall best teacher, amongst others.
Each of the categories had awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd winners.
On the health side, 16 awards were won from five categories, namely Hospital category, the Support Staff category, the Health Center category and the CHPS category amongst others.
The ceremony, which was on the theme: ‘Championing learning and wellness in our communities,’ also saw two lifetime awards presented to a retired educationist and a health practitioner.
Prizes such as motorbikes, refrigerators, chest freezers, TV sets and cash amounts, in some cases, were presented accordingly, per category.
The ceremony attracted manifold traditional leaders drawn from the municipality, as well as the Clergy, Assembly Members and other distinguished personalities.
For instance, Professor Mrs. Grace Ofori Sarpong Akuffo, the first woman professor in Metallurgical Engineering, chaired the awards ceremony.
Ohyeawora Bian Nwia Payin, chief of Dompim Pepessa, Nana Kobina Gyan, representatives of the Education Minister and Regional Education Director were present to grace the occasion.
Addressing the occasion, the initiator of the award and Member of Parliament (MP) for Tarkwa Nsuaem, George Mireku Duker, was elated to welcome the award winners to the third edition of the Duker Teachers’ and maiden edition of the Health Workers’ Awards ceremony.
He explained the awards were meant to honour, celebrate and motivate hard-working teachers, nurses, doctors and supporting staff.
“For three (3) years running, we have organised this event, running into millions of Ghana Cedis, with the support of benevolent institutions and companies, and the will of God.”
Emphasising the importance of education, MP Duker, who is also the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, indicated that education was the most impactful tool for changing the world.
He said he was of the firm belief that developing educational structures and potentials in Tarkwa-Nsuaem was not only about providing the necessary infrastructure and teaching and learning materials but also about taking into cognisance the welfare of the human resources that nurture children.
“I, therefore, reiterate my opinion that teachers are the fulcrum around which all discoveries and advancements of knowledge in all fields of endeavour revolve.”
He remarked that a teacher’s influence can last for a lifetime and hence, there was the need to support them in delivering the necessary training to the students.
As a teacher by profession, Duker, who has taught at various levels of the educational ladder, indicated that developing educational structures have been his top priority in changing the fortunes of the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality.
Arguably, teachers, he mentioned, were minimally motivated, irrespective of the strenuous tasks they go through.
Some teachers and health workers practice in very remote areas that are not commutable by transportation, yet they continue to give their best.
