Peter Tabichi is the best teacher in the world. The Kenyan teacher of mathematics and physics was honored on Sunday evening in Dubai with the "Global Teacher Award 2019". The prize is endowed with one million dollars.

Tabichi works at the Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in the village of Pwani. One third of his students are orphans or half-orphans, 95 percent come from the poorest conditions. "Drugs, teenage pregnancies, child marriages - all of which can stop students from attending school," says Tabichi.

He opposes it: with a natural science club and participation in international competitions, with lessons on sustainable agriculture and sometimes with breakfast. "For many students, having a meal in the morning is difficult," says the Kenyan teacher. "They can not concentrate in school because they are hungry."

A computer with rudimentary internet connection

As the best teacher can be awarded, who promotes his students the best and is a role model for his colleagues, it says in the invitation to World Teacher Award. The fact that the Kenyan also donates a large part of his salary to local aid projects impressed the jury that Peter Tabichi teaches nearly 60 students and has only one computer with rudimentary internet connection available.

Among other things, Tabichi prevailed against colleagues from India, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Japan and the Netherlands. The final round of the competition took place at the world's largest school and education conference in Dubai. The "Global Education & Skills Forum" (GESF) was attended by some 2,000 teachers, school researchers and education policy-makers over the weekend.

The initiator of the GESF and founder of the million dollar teacher prize is India-born entrepreneur Sunny Varkey. Among other things, he earned his money with real estate transactions. As an operator of more than 130 schools in several countries, his company group is also active in the education business.

"What teachers do every day is indescribable," says Varkey. Price and congress should help to ensure that every child worldwide - especially in difficult social circumstances - has access to good education. "Teachers and students together can change the world," says Varkey. Teachers have for him "the most important profession in society".

There is a strong correlation between the status of the teaching profession in a society and the performance of the students. "Respecting the teacher is not only an important moral duty - it is also crucial to the educational success of a country," says the entrepreneur.

A class with 155 children

Andrews Nchessie was not one of the finalists in the teacher competition. He deserves the prize anyway: the educator from Malawi is currently teaching a class with 155 students - alone. "Some kids are sitting on the floor right in front of my feet," Nchessie says on the sidelines of the convention in Dubai.

Andrews Nchessie teaches a class of 155 students - alone

Laptops or tablets for everyone? In many workshops, the use of digital media in the classroom is discussed here. Individually adapted lessons with computer support are the key to sustainable learning success. Andrews Nchessie sees it theoretically as well. But he also knows the reality in his home: "If I have 20 devices for my 155 students, then I'm already very well equipped."

His board is a board, the classroom at Kasungu Demonstration School does not have the right walls. Nevertheless, Nchessie regularly receives visits from other teachers, shows them his lessons, prepares material for colleagues in Malawi and Uganda, or trains for further education. Since he took his first elementary school class in 1994, Nchessie has experimented again and again and tried new forms of learning.

How does he manage to be attentive to every student and, if possible, to teach science or English to all children? Nchessie laughs. He can not remember the names, he admits, but his students have nameplates on their chest so that they can address them directly.

And his lessons, that's just a bit different. Biology can take place under a tree in front of the school, "then everybody sits in a circle and talks about the current topic". It is also clear that he always divide the class into smaller groups and that students also show each other something and teach.

Teacher for everything

"Students need to get involved and be as active themselves as possible," says Nchessie. And they are to see that their activities cause something, as he agrees with Peter Tabichi. For example, to get a basic understanding of meteorology, his students built a weather station and planted trees to deal with global climate change. Healthy nutrition is as much a topic at Kasungu school as HIV prevention.

In addition, a lot of singing, that promote learning, according to the educator. "With us in class, it's all about the right life," says Nchessie. Because that is perhaps the crucial message of this conference: that good lessons can be realized even where the situation of students and teachers at first glance seems almost unacceptable. There is no unified concept for successful and good teaching suitable for all students of the world, experts agree.

It is therefore all the more important to organize learning in active cooperation with the students. And this includes, says award winner Tabichi, the lives of students outside the classroom. In his case, this means that in the area where the math and physics teacher teaches, in 2007, after the Kenyan presidential election, there had been serious riots between different tribes. The violence of that time is still felt today. Tabichi has therefore set up a peace group at the school, the participating students come from seven different ethnic groups.

He wants to bring the students into contact with each other, says Tabichi. They would have to talk to understand each other. And they would have to learn - above all - to believe in themselves and in their power.

What makes him a good teacher? Creative, one must be, says the winner of the World Teacher Award 2019th It should also be afraid of new forms of teaching. And then there's something else, says Tabichi: "You have to talk less and act more."

Reporting from Dubai was made possible by a scholarship from the Jacobs Foundation .