Lewisham Teacher Wins Gathering of Africa’s Best Award

A Lewisham College (@LewishamCollege) Teacher has been awarded the ‘Contribution to the Promotion of the Positive Image of Africa and Africans through Education’ at the Gathering of Africa’s Best (GAB) Awards.

The GAB Awards celebrate African people in the media, financial services, business, retail and other walks of life. Highly-coveted within the Diaspora African community, Joyce Elemson, who has worked at Lewisham College for 9 years, picked up the accolade at this year’s ceremony, which was held virtually for the first time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joyce was praised for her significant contribution to improvements in education standards and the development of learning in Africa, providing many services to different areas of the continent by not only training of teachers and educators but also in supporting learners’ achievements and revitalising the emergence of education consultants.

Joyce, Curriculum Manager at Lewisham College, said:

“I am very humbled and grateful to be the recipient of this notable award for services to the educational development of Africa. As teaching and learning continue to evolve, young people need to be supported through teacher professional development which I am proud to be a part of.

“I offer my gratitude to the organisers and fellow teachers who have joined the noble cause of developing and strengthening Africa’s education sector.”

Highlights of her achievements included:

• Effectively raised awareness of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) throughout Nigeria, benefitting over 200,000 children
• Redesigned several UK modules to meet African teachers’ needs, which led to 3000 teachers receiving personal training
• Successfully collaborated with an NGO to help rehabilitate educators of internally displaced status within the Kaduna state of Nigeria
• Delivered free CPD workshops in Kaduna, Freetown and Makeni in Sierra Leone which led to a donation of educational resources worth over £5,000
• Developed a trial of interactive educational apps which will aid the teaching of Biology and Geography, and potentially additional core subjects.

Asfa Sohail, Principal at Lewisham College, said:

“Joyce’s efforts have inspired us all here at Lewisham College to constantly strive for greatness. This is a true demonstration of the expertise we have in our team and we are very proud of her well-deserved achievements.”

Joyce is also the Co-Founder of UKAPES; an organisation that strives to promote and transfer strategies to develop quality within the African education sector, and Joyce has been instrumental in developing a directory to collate teachers’ details for UKAPES newsletters and updates.