Andria Zafirakou, an art and textiles teacher from Alperton Community School, Brent, London wins the US$1 million (Dh3.67m) Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2018. She was announced winner in front of a huge audience at the glittering award ceremony held at The Atlantis, The Palm on Sunday night.
The prize was handed over by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who is also the award's patron.
Ms Zafirakou was recognised for inspiring her students at Alperton Community School, an inner-city school in Brent, a multicultural community in London, where more than one-third of children live in poverty and more than half of the residents were born outside the UK. She helped a music teacher launch a Somali school choir and she created alternative timetables to allow girls–only sports that would not offend conservative communities, leading the girls’ cricket team to win the McKenzie Cup. Ms Zafirakou also learnt the basics of 35 different languages, including Arabic, Gujarati, Portugese, Hindi and Tamil, to establish a relationship of trust between her pupils and their parents.
Ms Zafirakou is the first British teacher to win the award and was one of 10 finalists taken from over 30,000 entries from over 170 different countries.
The award ceremony was hosted by South African comedian and The Daily Show host, Trevor Noah.
This is the fourth year of the award, an initiative of the Varkey Foundation, which also launched the annual GESF six years ago.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May congratulated the winner in a video message. May said: “Being a great teacher requires resilience, ingenuity, and a generous heart. These are the qualities that you share with your students everyday. So thank you for all you have done and continue to do. I would also like to extend a huge thank you to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. for his support of the teaching profession and patronage of this prize.”
The ceremony was attended by Al Gore, former Vice-President of the United States; Nicholas Sarkozy, former President of France; Jennifer Hudson, Oscar winning actress and Grammy award winning singer; Sir Mo Farah, four time Olympic champion and six time world champion in long distance running; Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia; Simon Schama, world-renowned historian; Tariq Al Gurg, CEO of Dubai Cares and Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra.
Among the ministers who attended the ceremony were Minister of Tolerance H.H. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and The Future H.E. Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi, Cabinet Member and Minister of State for International Cooperation H.E. Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for Public Education H.E. Jameela Salem Al Muhairi, and Director-General of the Department of Protocol and Hospitality in Dubai H.E. Khalifa Saeed Suleiman.