Minister of Education Shaik Baksh announced that outstanding teachers will be honoured as part of activities to observe Education Month 2010, when he addressed the Teachers Graduation Ceremony held at the National Cultural Centre on Thursday.
According to a press release from the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) Baksh explained that the initiative aims to encourage the development of quality education delivery and to identify and reward those teachers who, through their dedication and commitment have made exceptional contributions.
The ministry said that guidelines for nominees require that they be formally trained with at least five years of service at the beginning of the academic year.
They are also required to have at least 90% attendance and punctuality for the current year and a 75% pass rate in their class/subject at the school’s annual examinations. Other forms of documented evidence of students’ performance at nursery and special schools will be accepted. In addition, nominees must have conducted at least three class/level subject level meetings with parents of the children they teach in a given school year.
Apart from these requirements for eligibility, the prospective awardees will be assessed in a number of areas including timely submission of records, the pursuit to improve learning facilities and opportunities, innovative teaching methods, professional development assistance given to their colleagues both intramurally and extramurally, participation in community activities, integrity, being a good role model, establishing good rapport with students and a willingness to work beyond the call of duty.
NCERD said all nursery, primary, secondary and practical instructional centres and special schools with full-time staff under the ministry’s purview may nominate one teacher from their staff to compete for the Teacher-of-the-Year award. The nominee must be selected by a majority vote of a panel of five adjudicators drawn from the school’s PTA or a similar body.
Each participating school will have a nominee competing to represent his region at the national competition. Regional education departments are tasked with examining the records of participating schools, conducting interviews with school administrators, teachers, parents and students as part of the process of selecting the outstanding teachers at the nursery, primary and secondary levels. Teachers selected in these three categories will represent their regions at the national competition. One winner from the 11 regional nominees will represent their respective regions at the national competition.
According to the release the awardee will be selected from a panel made up of the Chief Education Officer, a representative from the Guyana Teachers Union, the Teaching Service Commission, the event sponsor (Laparkan) and a distinguished former educator identified by the ministry. At the school level all nominees receive a certificate of commendation from the Department of Education. The ministry will also provide certificates and plaques to the winners in the 11 districts while the awardee will be given a monetary award.
