What is the Global Teacher Prize?
The Global Teacher Prize is awarded annually worth US$ 1 million to an outstanding teacher who has made an extraordinary contribution to the teaching profession. The aim of this global teacher award is to highlight the importance of teachers and the fact that their efforts should be recognized and honored across the globe.
Global Teacher Prize Objective
In addition, it aims to recognize the impact exceptionally great teachers have on their students and the communities around them. Recently, Global Teacher Award was in news as Ranjitsinh Disale, a government school teacher from Maharashtra, India earned Global Teacher Award. He was the only winner who decided to share 50% of his prize with his fellow finalists. Keep reading the article below to read more about the Global Teacher Prize.
Global Teacher Prize Overview
The renowned Varkey Foundation handles the Global Teacher Prize Awards in association with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). The Global Teacher Prize honors outstanding teachers who intend to raise their job profile around the world. It was founded in 2013 by Sunny Varkey, Chairman of Varkey Foundation.
Over 5,000 nominations from 127 countries received the award in its first year. Furthermore, the Global Teachers Prize has made a fundamental difference in the work and has made an absolute impact on the global platform and at the grassroots level over the years. For 2020, it saw 12,000 applications and nominations from over 140 countries globally. The winners of the Global Teacher Prize 2020 were announced at a live streamed online ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London. Stephen Fry (actor, comedian, writer and presenter) was declared the winner.
Global Teacher Prize Winner List All Season
Nancie Atwell Global Teacher Prize Winner 2015
Nancy Atwell from the United States received her Global Educator Award from Sunny Varkey of the Varkey Foundation, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, and President Bill Clinton. At the Global Education and Skills Forum in March 2015.
Nancy fell in love with books as a child when she was in the hospital with rheumatic fever. She teaches English in the form of a writing-reading workshop, an innovation she first described in her book ‘In the Middle’ (the first two volumes of the book sold half a million copies).
I’m convinced that teaching language arts is one of the great careers: demanding of time and energy, but meaning-filled, worthwhile, and interesting. I get to demonstrate what is possible, teach what is useful, establish conditions that invite engagement, support the hard work of literary reading and writing, and enjoy the kinds of relationships with adolescents that drew me to education in the first place.
Nancie Atwell
Hanan Al Hroub Global Teacher Prize Winner 2016
Hanan Al Hroub from Palestine received her Global Educator Award from Sunny Varkey of the Varkey Foundation, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai. His victory was announced by Pope Francis via video at the Global Education and Skills Forum in March 2016.
Hanan grew up in the Palestinian refugee camp, Bethlehem, where she regularly faced violence. She went into primary education after being traumatized by her children being shot on their way home from school. In the years that followed, her experiences in meetings and counseling to discuss her children’s behavior, development, and academic performance inspired Hanan to try to help others who grew up in similar situations and Find yourself unable to go to school. Special care is required.
We just want peace; we want our children to enjoy their childhoods in peace.
Hanan Al Hroub
Maggie Macdonnell Global Teacher Prize Winner 2017
Maggie McDonnell of Canada received her Global Educator Award from Sunny Varkey of the Varkey Foundation, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai. Her win was announced at the Global Education and Skills Forum in March 2017 via satellite by astronaut Thomas Pesquet.
After completing his master’s degree, he found that his country was beginning to wake up to decades of mistreatment by Canada’s indigenous people, including environmental assaults and enormous economic and social inequality. As such, she sought opportunities to teach indigenous communities in Canada and has been a teacher in a fly-in Inuit village in the Canadian Arctic called Salute for the past six years.
Teaching represented the ideal way to connect to youth, and have the opportunity to understand their realities, and design programs to help them reach their goals. Maggie Macdonnell
Teaching represented the ideal way to connect to youth, and have the opportunity to understand their realities, and design programs to help them reach their goals.
Maggie Macdonnell
Andria Zafirakou Global Teacher Prize Winner 2018
Andrea Zafirkou from the United Kingdom received her Global Educator Award from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, and Sunny Varkey of the Varkey Foundation. Their victory was announced in March 2018 at the Global Education and Skills Forum by students who set a world record for the largest human creation of a hashtag.
There is no other job like being a teacher. In what other profession are you selfless and completely devoted to creating the right opportunities for another person to achieve? Being in a classroom and watching a student have an idea and transform it into a formidable outcome is so satisfying and fulfills me.
Andria Zafirakou
Peter Tabichi Global Teacher Prize Winner 2019
Peter Tabichi is a science teacher and Franciscan Brother who gives 80% of his monthly income to help the poor. Her dedication, hard work and an obsessive belief in her student’s talent have led her impoverished-revitalized school in remote rural Kenya to triumph after taking on the country’s best schools in national science competitions.
One of my greatest joys in teaching is watching my students grow in knowledge, skills and confidence! When they become resilient, creative and productive in society, I get great satisfaction because I act as the enabler and key to their greatest destinies that unlocks their potential in the most exciting ways.
Peter Tabichi
Ranjitsinh Disale Global Teacher Prize Winner 2020
Ranjitsinh Disale, an Indian village teacher who transformed the lives of young girls at Zilla Parishad Primary School, Paritewadi, Solapur, Maharashtra, India, has been named the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2020 in partnership with UNESCO.
Teachers are the real change-makers who are changing the llives of their students with a mixture of chalk and challenges. They always believe in giving and sharing.
Ranjitsinh Disale
Keishia Thorpe Global Teacher Prize Winner 2021
Keyshia Thorpe, who opened the way to a college education for low-income, first-generation American, immigrant and refugee students, has been named the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2021. Keyshia’s victory was announced on 10 November 2021 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.
Keyshia, an English teacher at International High School Langley Park, Bladensburg, Maryland, was selected from over 8,000 nominations and applications from 121 countries around the world for the Global Teacher Prize.
