Organisers of the Maltina Teacher of the Year contest have declared registration with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria part of the requirements for participation in the 2018 edition.
Speaking at a ceremony to herald the search for the 2018 winner, the organisers insisted that participants not registered as professional teachers in the country would not have the opportunity to take part in the search for the number one teacher in the country this
year.
Maltina Teacher of the Year contest is an initiative of Nigerian Breweries Plc – Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund, established in 2015 to identify, showcase and reward outstanding teachers in
Nigeria.
In a keynote address at the ceremony, the Head of Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Lagos, Prof. Ngozi Osarenren, described teachers as invaluable drivers of societal norms.
She said that the teaching profession must be accorded due regards to attract the best and the brightest brains.
Osarenren, a former commissioner for education in Edo State, noted that if Nigeria must be saved from the menace of unqualified and incompetent teachers, the nation must find career-oriented teachers genuinely and passionately interested in the job and not because it was the last option available.
She listed other factors that could attract the best hands to the profession to include professionalisation of teaching, reasonable and guaranteed salary, job security and competitive entry requirements for would-be teachers.
On his part, the Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Jordi Borrut Bel, explained that in 2015 the Nigerian Breweries Plc-Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund expanded its intervention in education in Nigeria to teachers through the Maltina Teacher of the Year initiative.
Panelists, comprising stakeholders, drawn from the different parts of the country, tasked the TRCN not to bark alone, but also bite in order to ensure standardisation of the teaching profession.
