The winner of National Teacher’s prize 2017, Vladimer Aphkhazava, is among the 50 best teachers up for the Global Teacher’s Prize. Vladimer has taught civil education in Chibati public school, Guria, in the western region of Georgia since 2010. Last year Vladimer received the National Teacher Prize of Georgia.

[He has] a drive to help others, and he has widened school events to be accessible to all pupils, not just the outstanding ones. He has fundraised from private enterprises and companies, as well as applied for many different grants to fund supplementary manuals, educational resources, and summer camp places for pupils from socially vulnerable families”, the Global Teacher Prize says of Aphkhazava. Currently, Aphkhazava is fostering eight teenage boys who had to leave their parents’ homes due to domestic violence.

He has also made huge efforts to ensure that his school is more open to student participation – starting a programme called “Democratic Revolution” that aims to transform the running of the school into a series of processes similar to those of a real state – the programme has also expanded to 14 other schools.  If Vladimer wins the Global Teacher Prize, he says he would help schools in other regions of Georgia which can’t afford to purchase modern technology or foreign language books. Additionally, there are no schools with a cafeteria in Guria, which ultimately affects students’ learning. With proper funding, this issue could be solved. Finally, Vladimer would equip 26 schools within his region with greenhouse farming equipment. The Global Teacher Prize is an annual US $1 million award by the Varkey Foundation to a teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession.