National Best Teacher asks for more technical schools

National Best Teacher - Mr Kingsley Akom

When 120 teachers throughout the country competed for the 16th National Best Teachers’ Award, some of them with decades of experience and attractive lists of achievements in the field, 40-year-old Kingsley Akom, an Electrical Engineering teacher at the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) was not absolutely sure about his chances of being the eventual winner.

Particularly so because over the years, no technical teacher had won the ultimate award and his decade’s experience in the teaching field did not quite match that of majority of the other competitors.

But that was the story at Jackson’s Park in Koforidua, Eastern Region on October 5, this year. Among the 84 teachers and non-teaching staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES) who were awarded for their respective contribution to education in the country, Mr Akom was adjudged the best.

For his award, Mr Akom was given GHC60,000 to put up a house in a location of his choice, a laptop computer and a set of desktop computer for his school.

“When my name was mentioned as the winner, I felt as though I was dreaming. This is truly the greatest surprise in my entire life and I am very thankful to God for it”, he said during an interaction with this reporter soon after he returned to Kumasi.

He was not the only one overwhelmed by the award; his colleague teachers and students were too. As a sign of that, the school escorted him from Anloga Junction, a suburb in Kumasi, to KTI at Amakom amidst singing and dancing and climaxed his return with a mini-durbar at the Institute.

“I am very humbled by everything that is happening to me. Perhaps it is because I did not anticipate all these blessings could come so fast”, he said.

“In the midst of all these, however, I feel a little pressure because now I cannot do anything but meet expectations. This award also presents me with a huge challenge. It is relatively easy to achieve something but the real deal is maintaining it. I will do my best”, he promised.

When his opinion was sought on the way education was being handled, Mr Akom made a strong case for technical education in Ghana.

“”We need to take technical education very seriously as a nation if we are to realise our desired development. The development of the world today hinges on technology. Ghana cannot afford to slacken its pace, we need to be up and doing”, he said with passion.

He said, there are only 27 technical schools in the country a situation he said was not good enough considering the fact that a lot of the youth were wandering without any employable skills.

“This is why the National Democratic Congress manifesto promise to construct a technical school in each district is good news. I implore the government to honour that promise and the development of the nation could be expedited”, he added.

The National Best Teacher appealed to politicians to stay clear of education.

“We should develop a proper education plan and entrench it for every government to follow to the letter. If every government tries to do anything with our education, then we may have a long way to go to make the sector as achieving as everybody expects.”

Mr Akom is a native of Kumawu Bodomase in the Ashanti Region and was born to the late E. K. Brefo, a civil servant and Madam Grace Akua Nyarko.

He is the first of six children and married.

He is currently reading a Masters Programme in Electrical Engineering at the Kumasi Campus of the University of Education Winneba (UEW) where he earlier had his undergraduate degree and certificate education in the same course area.

Mr Akom read Electrical Installation Programme at KTI between 1987 and 1991 and then pursued Electrical Engineering Technician parts one to three at the Kumasi Polytechnic before going for the Certificate and bachelors’ degree in education at the UEW after which he was posted to the KTI on October, 5, 2000.

He advised colleague teachers not to despair and go about their work half-heartedly because of the obviously low wages that come to them but work hard enough to ensure the qualitative development of the nation.

“I know that there could be some teachers, who may even be working harder than I. I want you to know that your efforts shall never go unrewarded. Somehow, your blessing shall come”, he said and added “ for this 10 years that I have worked as a teacher, I am the only one who knows what challenges I have grappled with but I have not succumbed in the face of any of them. Let us work hard for the sake of Ghana.”