Zola Philip Mbebe believes that he is now destined for greater heights after winning an excellence award in the category of maths and sciences.
Mbebe was so excited after accepting his award that he said he will now gun for a national accolade in his cluster.
The awards, recognised as part of the National Teachers Awards were held earlier this month at the Sweet Valley Primary School in Retreat.
Mbebe teaches Maths and Natural Sciences at Zimasa Primary School in Langa.
The cluster awards includes Metro South and Metro Central Education Districts.
Mbebe competed against two other teachers who also made it to the finals.
His prize included an award for the school and also personal prizes including one to a holiday resort in the future.
Mbebe now hopes to win the competition at provincial level which will be held in November, and that should he win there, he will be catapulted to the national level, which results will be announced in March 2018.
Mbebe, who entered for the competition for the first time in his 19 years as a teacher, said it was not easy to win among the best teachers in his cluster .
“It was a tough competition. We do not have all the resources that we need for the subject, but we managed to pull through. I am very happy. I hope to win the national competition,” Mbebe said.
The Grade 5 teacher first had to impress officials from the department who evaluated him during his presentation earlier in the year, which qualified him for the final entry.
He thanked his principal, Fezile Mguqulwa, for encouraging him to enter for the competition and also his Head of Department (HOD) Malishwane Ntunja for support.
Mbebe has been in the school for 17 years after he moved from the Eastern Cape where he taught for two years.
He said one of the things that helped him to win the award were workshops known as Primary Service Programme (PSP) which he attends.
“We get strategies to make teaching practical and make it interesting to teach. We also get to know how to make learners curiouslyinvolved in the subjects at hand,” he added.
He holds a diploma in education and he completed an Advanced Certificate in Education at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Mguqulwa said they were happy for his achievement.
“It adds value to the school and the community at large. It indicates that there are capable teachers to uplift education in our local schools. This shows that he has a love for science and that he is dedicated to teaching,” Mguqulwa said.
Mguqulwa added that Mbebe has a class with about 90 percent pass rate.
