By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The Teaching Service Commission (TSC ) has on the 4th June 2021 ended a two-day screening exercise of teachers from the three districts of the Eastern region that were nominated for this year’s national award competition in Kenema.
The exercise started earlier this year with nine teachers who showed up for the award among which three best were needed to represent the three categories of Pre-Primary and Primary, Senior School and Senior Secondary School.
Addressing the teachers at the regional office of the TSC in Kenema, the Deputy Director, Teacher Management at the TSC, Alimamy Bundu Kamara expressed delight for the teachers who emerged winners at the district level. He said the teaching service commission has the autonomous power to attend to all matters relating to teachers’ welfare from recruitment till death as spelt out in the commission’s policy.
Kamara said that the national teacher’s award came into being as a result of the promise made by President Julius Maada Bio in his manifesto to appraise teachers for diligent service.
He added that it is incumbent on them as a commission to embark on the full implementation of the screening process which started in March 2021 at district level during which each district presented three candidates for the three levels.
He said the vetting team comprises, civil society, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Sierra Leone Teachers Union, Chairman Conference of Principals, Children Forum Network, Members of Parliament from the Education Committee, Inspectors of school, the Inter-Religious Council, and the Sierra Leone Association.
Kamara went on to note the TSC’s role was to facilitate the process. He thanked the teachers for the interest shown in the National Best Teacher’s Award which had started and assured them, there will be no loser in the competition.
At the end of the session, three teachers, one from Kenema district and two from Kailahun District were selected to represent the eastern region at the national level. The vetting process looked at professionalism, knowledge in subject areas including classroom management, and pupil relation among others.
In his statement, the a representative from the parliamentary Committee on Education, Kekula Vandi of constituency 088 in Bo district thanked the TSC and the Ministry of education for the initiative, noting that this is the first of its kind for the country to organize such an event. He therefore thanked president Bio for bringing novelty to the teaching profession “since independent no government has ever recruited teachers over seven thousand teachers within three years period,” he said.
Ho. Vandi said he believed that by next year, more teachers will show up for the award.
The Senior Investigator, ACC east, Quinton David referred to the screening event as credible and transparent as there are no areas with doubt and that the process was genuinely done with no favoritism. He called on other institutions to copy similar examples from TSC when selecting people for any such activities.
One of the participants to represent eastern region Harry Peter Jusu From Wesley Secondary School, Segbewama Kailahun district thanked the TSC and the panelists for doing a credible job and assured that as one of the candidates for the national event, they will do all they could to ensure that the eastern region emerge as the winner for the best teachers award for the first time. “We will do our best to fully represent eastern province since wise men came from the east,’’ said Harry.
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