Varkey Foundation Award Prize for Teachers worldwide ~$1 million Prize

The Global Teacher Prize is a US $1 million award presented annually to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession.

About Varkey Foundation

The Varkey Foundation, initially the Varkey GEMS Foundation, is a global charitable foundation focused on improving the standards of education for underprivileged children.It was formed in 2010 by Indian businessman Sunny Varkey, the founder and chairman of GEMS Education, the world’s largest operator of private kindergarten-to-grade-12 schools.

The foundation’s main focuses are improving global teacher capacity by training tens of thousands of teachers and principals in developing countries; providing access to education via a variety of programmes and projects; and advocating for change in, and conducting research that can help develop, education policies worldwide.

The Varkey Foundation has partnered with a variety of major global organizations including UNESCO, UNICEF, and the Clinton Global Initiative. In 2013, it launched the Global Education and Skills Forum, an annual education summit dedicated to addressing the world’s educational needs.

After analyzing the public status of teachers worldwide, in 2014 it launched the annual Global Teacher Prize, a US$1 million award to an outstanding pioneering teacher who has had a widespread impact. Sunny Varkey who leads the foundation is a “Goodwill Ambassador” of UNESCO.

Benefits

Requirements

• Open to currently working teachers who teach children that are in compulsory schooling, or are between the ages of five and eighteen.
• Teachers who teach children age 4+ in an Early Years government-recognised curriculum are also eligible, as are teachers who teach on a part-time basis, and teachers of online courses.
• Teachers must spend at least 10 hours per week teaching children face-to-face, and plan to remain in the teaching profession for the next 5 years.
• The Prize is open to teachers in every kind of school and, subject to local laws, in every country in the world.

Selection Criteria

• Employing effective instructional practices that are replicable and scalable to influence the quality of education globally.
• Employing innovative instructional practices that address the particular challenges of the school, community or country and which have shown sufficient evidence to suggest they could be effective in addressing such challenges in a new way.
• Achieving demonstrable student learning outcomes in the classroom.
• Impact in the community beyond the classroom that provide unique and distinguished models of excellence for the teaching profession and others.
• Helping children become global citizens through providing them with a values-based education that equips them for a world where they will potentially live, work and socialize with people from many different nationalities, cultures and religions.
• Improving the teaching profession through helping to raise the bar of teaching, sharing best practice, and helping colleagues overcome any challenges they face in their school.
• Teacher recognition from governments, national teaching organizations, head-teachers, colleagues, members of the wider community or pupils.

How to Apply