To appreciate the efforts of teachers, especially in the wake of COVID-19 in helping students to acquire knowledge, staff of Vodafone Ghana have acknowledged and rewarded the hard work of teachers in the National Vocational Technical Institute (NVTI).
Dubbed “Birthday Stars” the initiative, implemented in collaboration with the Planet Africa Relief Foundation, allows Vodafone employees to show love to deserving individuals on their birthdays.
Deserving teachers and students received varied rewards from Vodafone Ghana Foundation such as laptops, mifi and internet data.
Mr Amaris Nana Perbi, the Lead of Vodafone Ghana Foundation, said the initiative was part of the efforts by Vodafone to use sustainable programmes to drive social change, improve people’s lives and solve pressing social needs.
He said the Foundation found it necessary to celebrate and acknowledge teachers for their unwavering support over the years as the world celebrated the ‘World Teachers’ Day’, which falls on October 5 of every year.
The World Teachers’ Day, since its establishment in 1994 by UNESCO, has been marked to recognise the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions.
This year’s celebration on the theme: “Teachers: Leading in Crisis, Reimagining the Future,” provided a platform to celebrate the teaching profession worldwide, take stock of achievements, and draw attention to the voices of teachers, who were at the heart of efforts to attain the global education target of leaving no one behind.
Mr Perbi said teachers played a critical role in the development of human resource in the society and deserved to be celebrated, as the nation would miss out in national development without them.
Amid the challenges of COVID-19, he said many teachers still found innovative ways of engaging their students, which showed their commitment and passion towards education.
“As the students showcase skills and innovations in computer assembling, robotics, game development & animations, beads making, fascinators and fashion accessories, we will be observing and rewarding outstanding students and teachers with amazing prizes including laptops, mifi and data.
We believe that these devices will enhance teaching and learning in this institution,” Mr Perbi said.
Mr Christian Agordah, the Controller of Apprenticeship, Planet Africa Relief Foundations, said the stellar contributions of teachers to national development had lifted the image of the teaching profession.
He said it was unfortunate that teachers in the TVET space were often relegated to the background and not given the rightful attention and applauds they deserved.
“TVET is the game-changer, so far as sustainable livelihood is concerned in Ghana and the world as a whole, we at NVTI are poised to be that change, that voice that will make TVET what it is supposed to be.
We are on an aggressive drive to change the status quo and disabuse the people’s minds off the fallacy that TVET is for school dropouts and less privileged in society.
He said the NVTI was ready to partner Vodafone and Planet Africa to make a positive change as the changing world demanded a swift change in the strategies of teachers.
“These times of health and social crisis have illuminated the path to adapting and adopting technology into our strategy. I am excited Vodafone Ghana is here and I believe a collaboration with other stakeholders can culminate in a propitious platform for teaching and learning.
“We must not wait for another wave of the pandemic before coming up with rushed solutions. We must immediately put our arsenals together and build a system resilient enough to forestall the abrupt truncation of teaching and learning,” he advised.
Source: Newsghana
