Londoner Andria Zafirakou scooped the trophy in a star-studded ceremony in Dubai.
She’s set up girls-only sports clubs, learned greetings in all her students’ languages, and even ridden the school bus to help her learn more about life for her pupils.
So Andria Zafirakou sounds like a more than deserving winner for this year’s Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize.
Read:
Here’s what Priyanka Chopra’s been getting up to in the UAE
Charlize Theron weighs in on #MeToo during Dubai talk
The annual ceremony, which is held every year to recognise an outstanding teacher, took place in Dubai’s Atlantis The Palm on Sunday evening, with stars including Priyanka Chopra, Al Gore, Lewis Hamilton and former French president Nicholas Sarkozy in attendance.
During the event hosted by South African comic Trevor Noah, London-based Zafirakou was revealed as the final winner of the US$1 million (Dhs3.67m) prize, plucked from a pool of 10 finalists from all over the world.
Zafirakou is an art and textiles teacher at Alperton Community School, and is the first British educator to be awarded the prize (which made its debut in 2015).
She was handed her trophy by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who has been a patron of the prize since its launch.
“I was shocked. I was completely overwhelmed. I didn’t realise it was me,” Zafirakou told Metro, adding that teachers in the UK “work extremely hard”.
British Prime Minister @theresa_may congratulates Global @TeacherPrize Winner 2018 Andria Zafirakou and thanks @HHShkMohd for his support of the teaching profession and patronage of this prize #TeacherPrize #GESF pic.twitter.com/ZF1timFV5r
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) March 18, 2018
With regards to how she’ll spend her prize money, Zafirakou revealed: “I’m going to be patient, I’m going to reflect, but as you know I think it would be really fantastic if I could think about how the arts could be celebrated even further within our school community.”
Read:
Social media influencers in the UAE will now need a licence
Sheikh Mohammed just rescued these friends stranded in the desert
For this year’s Varkey prize, the 10 successful candidates were picked from a pool of more than 30,000 applications, with the finalists coming from Turkey, the Philippines, Colombia, the UK, the USA, Australia, Norway, Brazil, Belgium and South Africa.
Last year’s prize went to Canadian teacher Maggie McDonnell, while the 2016 award was given to Palestinian teacher Hanan Al Hroub.
