Olawunmi Ojo, Dubai
Canadian teacher, Maggie MacDonnell, has won the the $1m Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize for 2017.
Her choice was announced on Sunday, March 19, via a special video message by astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the International Space Station, broadcast into the Global Teacher Prize ceremony, which was the grand finale of this year’s Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
MacDonnell teaches at the Ikusik School in Salluit, a remote Innuit village nestled in an environment as harsh as the Canadian Arctic.
She was presented the prize by Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and the founder of United Kingdom-based Varkey Foundation, Sunny Varkey at the ceremony.
Adventurer, Bear Grylls had earlier jumped off an helicopter above the venue of the ceremony, before parachuting down to bring the trophy into the ceremony hall.
Details to come.
