Vodafone Ghana Foundation in collaboration with Planet Africa Relief Foundation has marked this year’s World Teachers’ Day at the National Vocational and Technical Institute (NVTI) as parts of efforts to celebrate teachers and acknowledge them for their unwavering support over the years. 

The event which forms part of the Foundation’s monthly ‘Birthday Stars’ project seeks to execute monthly projects tied to employee’s birthday celebrants to mark selected international days, in line with the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals within the month.

This year’s World Teachers’ Day celebration was on the theme “Teachers: Leading in crisis, reimagining the future”.

The day provided the occasion to celebrate the teaching profession worldwide, take stock of achievements, and draw attention to the voices of teachers, who are at the heart of efforts to attain the global education target of leaving no one behind.  

Speaking at the event, Head of Vodafone Ghana Foundation, Rev. Amaris Perbi, lauded teachers for their contribution to national development through the development of human resource.

According to him, teachers play a critical role in the development of human resource in our society and deserves to be celebrated well enough for their good works.  

“Without their contribution, a lot will be missed out in our nation’s development. Besides the challenges of teaching this year due to the COVID -19 pandemic, which disrupted the academic calendar, many teachers still found innovative ways of engaging their students. This shows their commitment and passion towards the education,” he said.  

He added “We are excited to be associated with this programme by National Vocational Technical Institute (NVTI), which is one of the leading institutions providing demand-driven employable skills for the youth.

"We are proud to be celebrating teachers as they play a significant role in setting up and reviewing our educational content on our zero-rated e-learning perform, Instant School.

"Vodafone Foundation will continue to improve the lives of people in society through our many initiatives that tend to solve a lot pressing social needs”. 

Rev. Amaris Perbi further stressed Vodafone was committed to develop and implement interventions that will drive social change, improve people’s lives and solve pressing social needs. 

“We are confident that that this gesture would go a long way to complement efforts of relevant stakeholder in the provision of quality and accessible technical and vocational training across the nation.”

For his part, Head of Monitoring and Evaluation for NVTI Ing. Christian Agordah, commended Vodafone Foundation for acknowledging members of a profession which in his view, “were not celebrated well enough”. He expressed gratitude for the items received whiles describing the initiative as a timely one.

“We are most grateful to Vodafone Foundation for this gesture. Indeed, the changing world demands a swift change in strategy as teachers.  These times of health and social crises has re-iterated the need to adopt technology into our strategy and this gesture, I must say, has come in good time. We are hopeful   these items would really impact positively the work of our teachers considering current times,” he said.

The event also saw students showcased skills and innovations in computer assembling, robotics, game development & animations, beads making, fascinators and fashion accessories. Winners of the competition rewarded with amazing prizes including laptops, mifi and data.