Nigerian Breweries Plc has announced that entries for the 2024 Maltina-Teacher-of-the-Year (MToY) award will be accepted from now.
The annual award, now in its 10th edition, seeks to recognise and honour the greatest and most excellent teachers in both public and private secondary schools around the country.
Interestingly, the cash rewards for the overall winner, the lesser prize winners (first and second runners-up), and the state champions have all been increased.
This year’s grand prize winner will receive N10 million in cash, up from N6.5 million the previous nine years, while the first and second runners-up will receive N3 million and N2.5 million, respectively, instead of N1.5 million and N1.25 million in previous years.
In addition, all state champions will now get N1 million each, up from the previous N500,000 award.
Mr Hans Essaadi, Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries Plc, announced the start of this year’s edition during a news conference in Lagos, stating the initiative has had a huge influence on teachers, the teaching profession, and Nigeria’s education sector in general.
According to him, Nigerian Breweries came up with the MToY award on the platform of its social arm, Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund, and the entries are voluntary and free of charge to participating teachers.
Represented by the Human Resource Director, Mrs Grace Omo-Lamai, the Managing Director explained that aside the money prize, the overall winner will also receive a plaque and certificate and go for all-expenses-paid short- course training in Finland while his or her school will be entitled to a block of six classrooms or another project of priority for producing him or her.
He said all the winners will be unveiled at the grand finale and award night in Lagos in October.
Shedding light on the competition and criteria for participation, the Corporate Affairs Director, Nigerian Brewery Plc, Mrs Sade Morgan, declared that though the competition is free, participating teachers must be certified by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) and must not be older than 55 years.
She noted that because of the increasing quality of entries each year, the cut-off marks to win the award had jumped from 50 percent to 60 percent and now to 75 percent.
She said the interested teachers could start sending their entries either physically or online through a dedicated website from Thursday 18th Friday till July 19th.