Meet the 10 finalists for the UAE’s $1 million Global Teacher Prize
Today, at the Global Education and Skills Forum, one teacher will be awarded $1 million for their work in inspiring pupils and the communities in which they work.
Nurten Akkus
Ayvacik Pre-School - Turkey Nurten founded the first kindergarten in a Turkish region suffering from poor socioeconomic and educational conditions. Before this, children had never gone to school. She worked round the clock to prepare the school for her pupils. She found materials, painted and cleaned, and created a play park and areas for sport, hobbies and recreation. Nurten’s pupils went from being hardly able to introduce themselves to literate and numerate, and their behavioural disorders decreased. She has also run projects with Unicef and the Turkish Ministry of National Education. She was named Teacher of the Year in Turkey by public vote in 2015 and 2016.
Luis Miguel Bermudez Gutierrez
Colegio Gerardo Paredes IED Colombia Luis has taught in one of the poorest areas of Bogota, rife with gun violence, poverty and abuse, since 2010. When he began he met the challenge on three levels: education against abuse, the exercise of reproductive rights in adolescents, and the curriculum. That programme is credited with cutting teenage pregnancies at the school from 70 in 2014 to none last year.
Glenn Lee
Waialua High and Intermediate School - United States An electrical engineer 24 years ago, Glenn embarked on a career change to fulfil a desire to become a Stem teacher who could offer pupils real-world applications of what they were learning. His pioneering efforts in building a robotics movement that ignited a passion for Stem throughout the state is a testament to his dedication to pupils, educators and the Hawaiian Stem community.
Koen Timmers
CVO De Verdieping - Belgium After an emotional 2015 phone call with an outreach worker in the Kakuma refugee camp in Africa, Koen decided to set up a crowdfunding campaign. It allowed him to ship his own laptop, 20 more devices, solar panels and internet infrastructure to Kakuma. On delivery, refugees were able to learn about web design. The teaching resources at Kakuma are now used by 100 global educators and Koen to
offer free education to African refugees on Skype. For this and other projects, he has received support from Dalai Lama, Unesco, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel.
Andria Zafirakou
Alperton Community School United Kingdom Andria teaches in the inner-city borough of Brent, one of the most ethnically diverse places in Britain. Its pupils come from some of the poorest families in the country, some who share one house with five other families. Learning the basics of many of the 35 languages spoken by Alperton’s pupils, Andria has earned the trust of marginalised pupils and established relationships with their parents. Thanks to her efforts, Alperton is now in the top 5 per cent of the country for qualifications and accreditations.
Marjorie Brown
Roedean School - South Africa Marjorie is a former human rights activist, teaching history to girls in South Africa and encouraging critical thinking. Her pupils have represented South Africa at youth forums, the Paris Climate Talks and various Ivy League universities. She popularised the Kids’ Lit Quiz in South Africa. This international competition was founded 26 years ago. South Africa has won three times in the past 13 years.
Jesus Insilada
Alcarde Gustilo Memorial National High School
- Philippines Jesus is the first member of his poor farming family to achieve professional qualifications, and he is now the leader of a school in the Philippines in a community where more than 90 per cent of pupils belong to Indigenous Peoples groups. His approach to teaching is known as culture-based education, which he uses in his school throughout the curriculum. It is his dream that education throughout his country will become truly inclusive. Jesus has received many national and international awards for teaching, and for his support for indigenous culture.
Diego Mahfouz Faria Lima
Escola Municipal Darcy Ribeiro -Brazil
When Diego arrived to lead his school it was notorious for being the most violent and drug-riddled in the area, with the highest dropout rates. Parents were afraid to enrol their children there and staff turnover was high. Teachers tended to punish rather than reward pupils. He has transformed the school by involving children, parents, teachers, staff and the community. He has encouraged local businesses to donate goods, and driven projects in his school.
Eddie Woo
Cherrybrook Technology High School - Australia
Eddie is a maths teacher and school head. He is at the forefront of school-based integrated Stem education, having identified that pupils often regard school subjects as having few practical applications. His “WooTube” channel on YouTube has become a valuable way for pupils to learn at a pace that suits them. It now has more than 60,000 subscribers-globally. Eddie is well known in Australia as an advocate for teachers.
Barbara Anna Zielonka
Nannestad High School - Norway
Barbara teaches English in vocational and academic classes in a school with a multicultural population. She has developed techniques that help low-achieving pupils to succeed, with an emphasis on technology. Her pupils are fluent in video editing, content curation and the use of digital platforms for learning. Last May, Barbara received Norway’s Gullepleprisen, which celebrates the teaching of IT.