Peter Tabichi, a teacher of Maths and Physics in a remote village in Kenya was awarded best teacher and won a global prize of $1 million.
Living and teaching in the famine-prone Rift Valley in Kenya, Tabichi was chosen among 10,000 other teachers from 179 different countries to win the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize last year in order to celebrate and give recognition on the impact and importance of the world’s best educators.
“I’m immensely proud of my students, we lack facilities that many schools take for granted. So as a teacher, I just want to have a positive impact not only on my country but on the whole of Africa,” said Tabichi.
The 36-year-old professor teaches at Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in a town called Pwani Village. Approximately 95 percent of the students living here are under the poverty line, and one-third of them have either become orphans, or only have one parent guiding them.
This difficult learning environment has forced children into dropping out of school and turning to delinquency. Tabichi started a Talent Nurturing Club by expanding the already existing Science Club, which has doubled enrolments within three years.
Not only is the school attendance rising, but their reputation for scientific achievements is getting more recognition by the day.
With Tabhichi’s guidance and mentorship, students in Pwani Village placed first in Kenya’s Science and Engineering Fair for public schools in 2018, with a device they invented to enable blind and deaf people to measure objects.
