This week, Peter Tabichi, Global Teacher Prize winner of 2019, will be visiting Cape Town to attend a number of events around the City, including the WEF where he will be presenting.

Peter Tabichi joined Benito Vergotine on The Honest Truth on Wednesday 4 September, listen to the conversation here: Peter Tabichi – the first Global Teacher prize winner

The Global Teacher Prize is a US $1 million award presented annually by global education charity the Varkey Foundation to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession.​Peter Tabichi is the first African recipient of this prestigious prize.

Video: https://twitter.com/varkeyfdn/status/1109873356587843584

Peter Tabichi, a science teacher who gives away 80% of his monthly income to help the poor, won the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2019 at a ceremony in March hosted by actor, singer, and producer Hugh Jackman. His dedication, hard work and passionate belief in his student’s talent has led his poorly-resourced school in remote rural Kenya to emerge victorious after taking on the country’s best schools in national science competitions.

Peter teaches at Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in Pwani Village, situated in a remote, semi-arid part of Kenya’s Rift Valley. Here, students from a host of diverse cultures and religions learn in poorly equipped classrooms. Their lives can be tough in a region where drought and famine are frequent.  Ninety-five percent of pupils hail from poor families, almost a third are orphans or have only one parent, and many go without food at home. Drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, dropping out early from school, young marriages and suicide are common.

Turning lives around in a school with a student-teacher ratio of 58:1, is no easy task, not least when to reach the school, students must walk 7km along roads that become impassable in the rainy season.

Undeterred, Peter started a talent nurturing club and expanded the school’s Science Club, helping pupils design research projects of such quality that 60% now qualify for national competitions. Peter mentored his pupils through the Kenya Science and Engineering Fair 2018 – where students showcased a device they had invented to allow blind and deaf people to measure objects. His students, who had never stepped on a plane before, went on to win the UN Sustainable Development Goal Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Phoenix, Arizona this year.

Despite teaching in a school with only one desktop computer with an intermittent internet connection, Peter uses ICT in 80% of his lessons to engage students, visiting internet cafes and caching online content to be used offline in class.

This year, Peter was appointed the first Champion for Children in Conflicts and Crisis for Education Cannot Wait, the global fund for education in crisis. He is championing the cause of the 75 million children whose education is disrupted by conflicts and natural disasters.

More in depth video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i41XlsaDc-w