Salima Begum, a teacher from Gilgit-Baltistan, has made it to the top 10 finalists for the Global Teacher Prize. The award focuses on improving global teacher capacity by training tens of thousands of teachers in developing countries, providing access to education via a variety of programmes and projects.

About Salima Begum

Working at a women elementary school in Gilgit since 1992, Salima Begum was selected among the 20,000 applicants from around the world for the Global Teacher Award.

All the way through her career, Salima also contributed to teacher training. So far she has instructed more than 7,000 teachers across Gilgit-Baltistan and 8,000 more throughout Pakistan. The United States Agency for International Development has also acknowledged her contribution to their Teacher Education project.

Due to her hard-work and passion for teaching, she is now the headteacher of her school. Because of her efforts, students have also performed exceptionally well in official examinations which has ultimately resulted in an increase in enrollment in her school.

According to her pupils, the classes she takes are mostly activity based and the syllabus is taught with real-life examples that help the students to grasp ideas in a better way. Getting bored is never a possibility in Salima Begum’s class as she keeps the whole class engaged, making the lecture fun and interesting.

Without professionally developed teachers, quality education is not possible and we won’t be able to raise a civilised nation – Salima Begum

About the Global Teacher Prize

The Global Teacher Prize is a $1 million award that is annually presented to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession in any possible way.

The prize also highlights the importance of teachers, their achievements and efforts. Now in its 3rd year, the award helps unearth thousands of stories of various teachers that have transformed young people’s lives and also hopes to bring to life the exceptional work of millions of teachers around the world.

Source: globalteacherprize.org