Meet GH4STEM 100 Top Teacher: PRISCILLA AWURAMA DARKWAH POBI, Koforidua #GH4STEM

Priscilla Awurama Darkwah Pobi is a teacher, wife and mother of three daughters. It is easy to tell that she looks up to women who are able to manage domestic work and full time jobs as well. From Gifty Anti to Stacey Amoateng, her favorite of the many women who inspire her is Professor Ewurama Addy of the Science and Maths Quiz, a woman she believes has not gotten the praise and spotlight she deserves. For Priscilla, Professor Ewurama Addy encouraged her to study science by being one of the few women in the field at the time. 

Mrs. Pobi’s mother was a teacher who always encouraged her to study hard and take her science lessons seriously. After a few years of being indecisive on what career path to take, she was convinced by her mother that teacher training was the best for her. Today, she is more than happy that she took that advice and can’t imagine herself doing anything else.

For the past thirteen years, Priscilla has been teaching STEM at the Holy Trinity Presbyterian Model School where she teaches over two hundred students in different classes. In 2017, she was awarded a prize as 2^nd best science teacher in Ghana. In the next five years, she aspires to be teaching science at a higher level of education after doing further studies. Although a challenging profession, Mrs. Pobi embraces the challenges that come with being a teacher. The fact that she is able to impact so many lives that in turn impact the society is the highlight of her career. She also waits for the day when one of her students will become a celebrated inventor or scientist.

Mrs. Pobi believes that STEM is an important part of young people’s lives because it teaches them to learn things that they can use in every aspect of life. The practical nature of STEM makes things more realistic and enjoyable for students, and for teachers, easy to teach.

Finding out about the JUNEOS Challenge first through an advertisement on television, Mrs. Pobi was later introduced to the concept by the Regional Science Coordinator. She went on to show videos to her students and they opted to be a part of the exciting challenge. Priscilla was happy to have her students finally overcome their struggle with chromatography through the JUNEOS Challenge. Her students, who have developed more interest in science, look forward not only to participating in other editions of the challenge but also to their science lessons. 

Priscilla is a member of BSTEM and GAST and would love to join the JUNEOS Challenge not only as a teacher but to reach the level of training other teachers in STEM as well. She believes that the JUNEOS provides a platform to birth the next generation of inventors. Mrs. Pobi hopes that the initiative can be televised for other students and teachers to learn from. She also encourages schools and teachers to join the JUNEOS Challenge.

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Article by Elizabeth Johnson.

Elizabeth Johnson works as a researcher and project manager with Dr Monk and volunteers the rest of her time with the Writers Project of Ghana where she takes up various roles such as radio show production, social media management and administrator for their annual literary festival. She is a published writer who writes both fiction and non fiction and has won awards for her work.