 |
| Mr. Itodo Anthony, shortlisted for Global Teacher Prize Photo credit: Cletus Ukpong |
Two Nigerians are among
50 finalists shortlisted for the 2018 Global Teacher Prize.
PREMIUM
TIMES report continues:
The
winner, which will be announced March next year in Dubai, will receive US$1
million prize money for being “an exceptional teacher who has made an
outstanding contribution to their profession,” according to the information
posted on the Global Teacher Prize website.
The
shortlisted Nigerian teachers are Itodo Anthony and Ayodele Odeogbola of the
Gateway Excel College Otukpa, Benue State, and the Abeokuta Grammar School,
Ogun State, respectively.
The
prize, which is considered the ‘Nobel Prize for teaching’, is sponsored by the
Varkey Foundation, a non-profit organization with interest in the education of
underprivileged children around the world.
“The
prize serves to underline the importance of educators and the fact that,
throughout the world, their efforts deserve to be recognized and celebrated,”
says the organizers of the prize.
“It
seeks to acknowledge the impacts of the very best teachers – not only on their
students but on the communities around them.”
The
organizers said that one of the shortlisted Nigerians, Mr. Anthony, founded a
community-based organization for youths – New Frontiers Youth Forum – in May
2017 and used it to raise young leaders who in turn would act as the agent of
positive change within the community.
“This
October, The Forum commissioned a community library. The community had no
library where students and others could study in comfort or have access to
resources they could afford,” the organizers said.
They
said further of him: “At the beginning of his career, in a small rural school
in Nigeria, not many people understood why Anthony would get a master’s degree
from a UK university and end up teaching in a village for ‘peanuts’.
“But
this was part of his mission – to elevate the teaching profession to a place of
pride, to say with his own life that the profession is a noble one whose value
is not tied to how much we earn. Today, the same people who mocked his decision
to teach especially in a rural area are publicly celebrating his and his
students’ successes.
“When
he teaches in class he tries to introduce positive values from other parts of
the world to broaden their view of life. When he told them that in some
European countries a woman gets half the property at divorce, it shocked them,
coming from a culture where gender inequality is grave and women can actually
be kicked out of their husband’s homes at will.
“So
he preaches the virtues of justice, institutional soundness, community service,
value creation, among others that are elements from other cultures that can
help create an ideal value system in Nigerian youth.”
An
obviously elated Mr. Anthony reacted to his shortlisting thus, in a post he put
up on Facebook, Wednesday: “As a Top 50 finalist, a teacher becomes a part of
the prestigious Varkey Teacher Ambassadors programme, which has the Top 50
finalists from the past three editions as members.
“For
me this is one of the biggest attractions of the prize, the opportunity to
share a platform with over 200 of the world’s finest teachers, to learn and
share best practices.
“Top
50 was my primary target and I achieved that.
“In the past three editions of this prize no Nigerian teacher made Top 50 and that was pretty unsettling for me, seeing how Kenyan teachers dominated African representation. This year we are two Nigerians, me and my friend Odeogbola Ayodele. I am happy we’re changing the narrative and opening the path for other Nigerian teachers,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment