DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Kenyan science teacher from a remote village who gave away most of his earnings to the poor and tutored students on the weekends won a $1 million prize on Sunday that honors one exceptional educator from around the world.

The teacher, Peter Tabichi, was selected from 10,000 applicants for the Global Teacher Prize. He teaches in the semiarid village of Pwani, where almost one-third of children are orphans or have one parent, and where drought and famine are frequent.

Classrooms are poorly equipped, and the school, which teaches students 11 to 16 years old, has one computer with intermittent internet access.