Life Orientation Teacher Awards 2020
5 March 2021
The 4th Annual Life Orientation (LO) Teacher Awards ceremony was held at the Century City Hotel and Conference Centre on Friday, 26 February 2021.
The ceremony was both a mask-to-mask as well as a virtual ceremony to accommodate all teachers.
Western Cape Education Department (WCED) officials ensured that all Covid-19 protocols were observed and were well supported by the hotel staff. Only the teachers (awardees) were invited without their partners.
The awards ceremony was shortened to accommodate for the Covid-19 protocols and therefore there was no gala dinner or entertainment. The teachers appreciated the acknowledgement and affirmation despite the absence of the razzmatazz.
Ismail Teladia, Senior Curriculum Planner for Life Orientation in the General Education and Training (GET) phase, welcomed the guests. The keynote address was delivered by Dr Omar Esau, education lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch, and there was a contribution from Sirvaun Hickley, representing the PnP Schools Club.
PnP donated gift vouchers and framed certificates, OMNI HR Consultants donated 16G flashdrives and Damelin donated string-bags and t-shirts to all the awardees.
The 2020 awards included a special category for LO teachers that had passed away due to Covid-19. They included Riedewaan Abrahams (Pelican Park High), Ronald Kock (Diazville High), Farren de Wet (Barrydale Secondary) who was an awardee in 2019, Heinrich Jansen (Bella Vista Secondary) and Graham Adams (Tuscany Glen Primary).
Five teachers per district were acknowledged for the excellent and innovative contribution they made to the teaching of Life Orientation during lockdown. There is no doubt that this awards function is an important annual event for all Life Orientation teachers to the extent that teachers go out of their way to attend.
One such teacher, Nisa De Klerk, drove from Vredendal to attend the slightly longer than one-hour function. Teachers from Overberg, Cape Winelands and Eden and Central Karoo were locked onto MS Teams to hear their names being called.
Congratulations to all our awardees!
