Kenyan Teacher wins Global Teacher Prize 2019

Kenya’s remote village science teacher wins Africa’s first Global Teacher Award. Peter Tabichi, the global Teacher ward winner beat nine other finalists in the last round to emerge the winner of the big prize. According to globalteacherprize.org Peter gives away up to 8o% of their monthly earnings to help the less privilege in the community. He is known as a very dedicated educator whose passion and belief in his students is second to none. His gesture and dedication to duty and to seek the improvement of his students in a remote village in Kenya made him the winner of the global teacher prize for 2019. He took home a cash prize of $1million.

A Ghanaian teacher by name Robert Gbari Gariba who teaches in Richard Akwei Memorial School in Accra was in the last 40 finalists. So were teachers from Nigeria, Lesotho, and others. This is the first time an Africa has won this award. He championed the village school’s winning of the nation’s science competition.

This important news was announced during the Global Education and Skills forum in March this year. Peter is a teacher in Keriko Mixed Secondary School in a village by name Pwani in Kenya. The village is located in Kenya’s semi-arid rift valley. His students are a blend of children from poor homes and diverse cultures. Learning is done in classrooms that are not equipped enough to pass as learning environments yet Peter used this poor environment to rise to the top as the 2019 Global Teacher.

Life in Pwani-Kenya

The inhabitants in the Pwani community are poor and affect ted by drought and famine and close to 95% are from poor homes. The students are the combination of poor kids, orphans and those living with single parents. In this area, early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and drug abuse are common. Students walk up to 7 kilometers before they get to school on a daily basis. This was made worse by the lack of teaching and learning materials but Peter Tabichi turned the lives, hopes and aspirations of these children around.

Peter Tabichi and His work

Peter guided his students to design and invent a measuring tool that blind and deaf students can use to measure; he inspired his students to love science and expanded the science club in the school. These pupils competed in the Kenya Science and Engineering Fair 2018 to showcase their invention

The placed first at the National Science Competition which boosted their confidence. The schools’ Mathematics and Science team qualified at the same event to take part in the INTEL International Science and Engineering Fair 2019 in Arizona, USA. They are preparing to take part in the event when it is staged.

He and his students from the remote area with the help of their knowledge in science, and chemistry used a local plant life to generate electricity. This was recognized by The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Peter alongside four other friends provides science and Mathematics tuition for their students at home as well. He has impacted a positive image and self-belief in his students. Pupils have achieved a high level of self-esteem and so, enrollment has doubled. Many more students from his class and school are gaining admission into top universities and colleges while girl child education has also been on the rise. The performance of girls has also improved tremendously.

We at newsghana24.com salute you on making Africa proud and much more importantly for making these children believe in themselves. You are our teacher hero for 2019.

Sadly in Ghana, we are returning to the old fashioned education system whereas in which teachers are demotivated to go the extra mile to do what the love doing best as teachers.