Two Nigerian teachers, Itodo Samuel Anthony and Ayodele Odeogbola have been named among the top 50 teachers in the world,having emerged as two of the 50 finalists eligible for the Global Teacher Prize award organised by the Varkey Foundation.
Anthony, a teacher in Gateway Excel College, otukpa in benue state and his compatriot, Odeogbola who teaches STEM education and global studies at Abeokuta grammar school made the top 50 finalist list, becoming the first Nigerian teachers to ever emerge finalists since the creation of this award.
The global teacher prize award is a $1million cash award presented annually to a teacher in recognition of his exceptional works and outstanding contribution to the profession.
The award, founded under the patronage of the vice president and Prime Minister of UAE and Emir of Dubai, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is aimed at recognising the important role of educators in countries as well as their positive impacts in the lives of their students and community as a whole.
Anthony and Odeogbola are both media influences on facebook and twitter respectively, both known for their wisdom filled posts.
In 2017, Anthony founded a community based organisation for youths – New Frontiers Youth Forum and Odeogbola developed a professional development scheme in collaboration with the United States Mission in Nigeria, Microsoft Nigeria and ogun state government and has so far trained over 2000 teachers.
From small and rural communities far away in Benue and Abeokuta, both are becoming great role models, bent on changing the overview of the teaching profession in Nigeria.
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