Taraba Female Tutor Bags Maltina Best Teachers’ Award.Our Correspondent.

A female Teacher with the Taraba state Nigerian British Secondary school, Jalingo, Mercy Gideon (MS) has emerged the overall winner of the Taraba State 2022 eighth edition of the Maltina Teacher of the Year competition .
Mercy Gideon, a Biology Teacher and Masters Degree Holder is the first teacher to win the prestigeous Award from the Northern part of Taraba state, while a total of five Teachers from the State have emerged winners of the competition since the commencement and introduction of the Annual contest.
The Maltina Teacher of the Year competition is a platform created to identify, showcase, and reward exceptional teachers in both public and private secondary schools across the country.
The laudable initiative commenced since 2015 through the Felix Ohiweire Education Trust Fund and is fully funded by the Nigerian Breweries.
Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund was established among other things to facilitate an active contribution to the development of the education sector in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.
As a matter of procedure, online applications are opened to interested teachers in the month of May to July every year. Only Applicants who are duly registered with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria are eligible. Such Applicants are expected to visit https://maltinateacheroftheyear.com. Alternatively, eligible applicants could download the application form, fill, scan, it, and send the completed application form by mail to maltinateacheroftheyear@heineken.com.
The multi-step evaluation of entries is followed by intensive selection and judging processes by the independent panel of judges who ensure transparency, credibility, and objectivity to win a state championship.
Contrary to the public assertion that “a teacher’s reward is in heaven”, contemporary society strongly believes that a teacher’s reward should be on earth too! This informs the commitment of the Foundation and the Nigerian Breweries to sustain this initiative since its commencement in 2015 and to champion the cause of teachers through the Maltina Teacher of the Year Annual National Competition to identify and honor outstanding teachers in Nigeria.
It is a fact that today’s youth will become tomorrow’s leaders, and teachers have direct access to educate the youths in their most impressionable years. The Foundation believes that Teachers can shape leaders of the future in the best way they could for society to feel the impact of a responsible younger generation in Nation building.
According to the Foundation, teachers have the most important jobs in the world because they impact the children and youth of society who have the power to change lives. Not just for those children themselves, but for the lives of all.
Through the Maltina Teacher of the Year, the Foundation in collaboration with the Nigerian Breweries has recognized a total of 181 exceptional teachers across different states in Nigeria. Worthy of special recognition is the admirably motivated, thousand and twenty-seven (1,027) teachers who electronically submitted long easy entries for this year’s competition from all 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory. The partners of the Maltina Teacher’s Competition, are the Federal Ministry of Education, which was gracious enough to officially endorse endorsement for the initiative, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), All Nigerian Conference of Principals of Secondary School (ANCOPPS), and the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN). The foundation has enjoyed unflinching support from the partners toward the success of the project and related initiatives.