High entries recorded in 2019 Maltina Teacher of the Year competition

The submission of entries for the 2019 Maltina Teacher of the Year witnessed a104-percentage increase over the 2018 figures as entries were received from the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The figures from the organisers show that a total number of 1,310 entries were received in 2019 as against the 641 entries received in 2018.This year’s entries are also the highest ever recorded by the initiative since its inception in 2015.

Sade Morgan, director, Corporate Affairs, Nigerian Breweries Plc while speaking on the development, observes that this year’s performance is a substantial improvement in the level of participation by teachers across the country, which is a confirmation of the growing interest and acceptance of the initiative as a platform for rewarding the efforts and commitments of teachers in the country.

Morgan says that as it has always been the practice, the entries were thoroughly scrutinised by the project assessors who pruned them down to 548 valid entries.

According to Morgan, “All these valid entries will now be subjected tothe evaluation and assessment of our esteemed Panel of Judges who will determine the applicants to emerge as State Champions based on the set criteria”.

“Once the state champions have been determined, the 10 best entries from the pool of the state champions will be selected and invited for another round of assessment where the Jury will further subject them to rigorous scrutiny against established set criteria in order to determine who truly should be named the Maltina Teacher of the Year. On October 18th, 2019, the winners will be announced and celebrated at a grand event to be held at Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos”, Morgan said.

The Maltina Teacher of the Year is an initiative of the Nigerian Breweries Plc-Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund-conceived to recognize, celebrate and reward exceptional teachers for their outstanding contribution to the teaching profession in Nigeria.

Like in previous editions, the winner of the 2019 Maltina Teacher of the Year is expected to go home with a cash prize worth N6.5 million a capacity training abroad while a block of classrooms will be built at the school where he or she teaches. She added that the first runner-up and the second runner-up for the competition will get a cash reward of N1m and N750,000 cash prize respectively while state champion , will receive a cash reward of N500,000 each.

Since inception, the Maltina Teacher of the Year has produced four grand winners: Rose Nkemdilim Obi from Anambra State (2015), Imoh Essien from Akwa Ibom State (2016), Felix Ariguzo from Delta State (2017) and Olasunkanmi Opeifa from FCT (2018).