Canadian teacher elected as the world’s best

Canadian school teacher Maggie MacDonnell, receives the Global Teacher Prize from Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 19, 2017.(AP Photo/Martin Dokoupil)

Canadian Maggie MacDonnell, who is a teacher in an Inuit village in northern Canada, has been named winner of the Global Teacher Prize award.

MacDonnell, who is hailed due to her ability to change the lives of her students, could Sunday bring home the prize of one million US dollars in fierce competition with 20,000 teachers from 179 countries.

For The last six years MacDonnell has been teacher in the Inuit village of Salluit, where suicides among adolescents is a major problem. She has herself been witness to ten suicides.

– As a teacher to get to the school in the morning when there is an empty seat in the classroom. Then it is tense and silent, she said, fighting back tears as she accepted the award at a ceremony in Dubai. It is the third time the prize is awarded.

In her teaching she emphasizes on the importance of hope and good deeds; she has also created a self-help program specifically targeting girls. Early pregnancies are common in the area; sexual abuse is also widespread, according to MacDonnell’s own biography.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today