Kumasi, April 18, GNA - The Kumasi Diocese of the Methodist Church has organised an awards ceremony to honour dedicated and hardworking teachers in schools managed by the Church.

In all, 156 head teachers and teachers were presented with prizes that included wall clocks and Certificates of Honour. It climaxed the first Diocesan Education Week celebration on the theme "Arresting Poor Performance in Schools-The Role of the Church and the Teacher".

The Right Reverend Nuh Ben Abubekr, Diocesan Bishop, said the awards ceremony to be held annually, was designed to motivate teachers of the Church's Education Unit to give off their best and to be innovative to help raise the academic performance of schools under the management of the Church.

He said the Church cherished working in close collaboration with the State to promote "wholesome" education to uplift the people spiritually, socially and economically.

"Our goal is to assist to ensure that products of the country's education system are not only academically excellent and professionally competent but imbued with honesty, integrity and Christian values ". Rt. Rev. Abubekr said it was because of this that the Diocesan Synod of the Church would be discussing performance assessment of 20 selected schools and come out with appropriate recommendations to improve performance.

Besides, the Regional Education Unit was to be adequately resourced to effectively monitor and supervise schools. Mrs. Mabel Osei-Owusu, Headteacher of the WESCO Practice School and one of the recipients of the awards, said the teachers were grateful to the Church for the recognition and noted that it would spur them on to work harder to produce good results. The Church used the occasion to present footballs to the schools.