Best English teachers receive awards at Prague ceremony

Good English teachers are in great demand in the Czech Republic. While more and more children want to learn the language, schools are facing a serious lack of qualified teachers. The Prague Post Endowment Fund is aiming to improve the situation by organizing The Best Teacher of English Competition.

The Best Teacher of English ceremony was held at the American Centre in Prague on Friday. Teacher Mária Vučková, was voted one of the seven best English teachers of 2009; she has been working as a teacher for the past fourteen years:

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“Originally I worked as an interpreter for Spanish and English. Than I got married, I had children and after that the school which my son attended needed an English teacher. So I said that I could substitute for some time the one who was missing and I started to teach. And I found out that I really liked it because could do all the creative things with children, drama songs, drawing and everything I was doing with my son at those days. That’s how I became a teacher.”

Switching from interpreting to teaching is quite unusual. More often, teachers quit the profession to find a better paid job. Mrs Vučková admits she too wouldn’t be able to teach if it wasn’t for her husband, who makes enough to support their family. Teachers also complain that their work is not appreciated, something which the Best Teacher of English Award is trying to change. Bibiana Duhárová is an associate publisher for the Prague Post:

“What we are trying to do in the Czech Republic and in the European region is to spread the use of English, learning of English and to recognize teachers’ efforts. The history of this event is very short. It started in 2008 so it is in its second year. The best teacher is nominated by the directors of each school, they receive points according to the results their students had and then we choose the seven best of those that had the highest score.”

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All the winning teachers agree that being a good teacher means above all enjoying their job. Eva Poláková from Liberec technical secondary school was another of the seven winners:

“What do I like about my job? My students and the opportunity to be with young people and the opportunity to learn something new, because you have to learn new things if you want to be a good teacher.”