The Director of Education, Marcellus Taylor says “as a society on the whole, we often take our teachers for granted. Addressing a Press Conference for the Teacher of the Year Awards yesterday at the Church of God of Prophecy on East Street, Mr Taylor said, “ we rarely consider how fortune we are that God has richly endowed each and every one of you teachers with the special gift of being able to take students, sometimes in a very raw state, and help them in their personal transformation.”
‘We are sometimes not even appreciative of how blessed we are to have a cadre of such impactful mind-changers in educators like you. However, at the Ministry of Education, we are fully aware of the huge significance of our teachers, and this is why, more than almost 3 decades ago the ministry established the national teacher of the year award, which focuses on spotlighting those educators who stand out in terms of their performance.”
Under the theme – The Journey of Excellence Continues,
Some of the female teachers were adorned in tiara’s and sashes as Teacher of the Year Nominees. The teacher of the year will be in that prestigious position from 2019 to 2021.
Mr. Taylor said, “this is the occasion when we take time out of our very, very busy schedules to pay tribute to you and this exceptional contingent of educators, our national teachers of the year, let’s give you a hand at the very beginning.”
“As we all know, all of our teachers are national heroes, but this distinguished group of hard-working teachers, motivated and committed national builders from the public schools around the archipelago, are being applauded and commended and commemorated over the next few days.”
“We believe that your work has demonstrated your excellence as professionals in our education sector, and for that we commend you.”
The objectives of the national teacher of the year awards are:
- To highlight the significant role of teachers in nation building
- To honour and award teachers for their outstanding contributions in the field of education
- To encourage and motivate teachers to perform at high standards
- To provide teachers with the opportunity to showcase and share their teaching talents
- To introduce outstanding teachers to the wider community
- To enable the nominees to bond with some of their professional collegues.
“This year, which is our 13th Bi-Annual anniversary, we are celebrating forty-three outstanding educators, 5 of them are men,” said Mr. Taylor.
“These are school nominees from the various school districts from around the Bahamas.”
“You are not simply receiving an award, but also vying for the title of district winner, in this case, national winner.”
“Once that determination has been made, who the winners are, then of course there will be a formal ceremony when a national teacher of the year, for the entire Bahamas, and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners will be named.”
The present teacher of the year is Mrs. Antonique Josey, a teacher at the Anatol Rodgers High School.
“The Director of Education extended hearty congratulations to the teachers on being nominated for Teacher of the Year and in their future endeavors.”
Mr. Benjamin White, Co-Chair Person of the National Teacher of the Year Committee, then informed everyone of the activities for the rest of the week:-
The Family Island delegates arrived yesterday. There are 8 districts represented from the Family Islands.
Last evening a church service, at the Church of God of Prophecy on East Street, was held at 7:30 pm.
Today at 11:00 am, a Medal and Certificate Presentation will be held at Government House
At 6:00 pm, a reception at Workers House, which is sponsored by the Bahamas Union of Teachers
On Friday, a Sail-Away to Fresh Creek, Andros
On Saturday, the Grand Awards Ceremony will be held, where the Teacher of the Year for 2019 to 2021 will be crowned.
The present teacher of the year is Antonique Josey, a Teacher at the Anatol Rodgers High School on Faith Avenue in Nassau.
