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HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance affirmed that the spirit of cooperation reflects the determination to overcome challenges, obstacles, crises and epidemics, and that advancing education and making it accessible to all, especially in the less developed societies is a noble objective that should be realised in the world to achieve development and prosperity for future generations.

This statement was issued by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, at the felicitation ceremony of the sixth edition of the UNESCO-Hamdan Teacher’s Prize to recognise the distinguished practices and efforts to enhance the performance of teachers. The ceremony was organised virtually on Monday, 5^th October at 3:00 PM UAE Time in sync with the global teacher’s day as part of the UNESCO’s events.

HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance said, “We are proud with the achievements we have made throughout 12 years in collaboration with UNESCO to support education for all and enhance quality in less develop communities. Together, we have succeeded in attracting 729 participants from diverse countries where 17 educational institutions have won prizes.”

He continued, “The success of the prize fund in financing three important projects for the organisation is part of our commitment to continue the journey of achievements and successes which reflects the close relationship between UNESCO and the UAE through decades. We hope to continue this way forward and we are confident that our joint capabilities to overcome challenges will create an ideal education environment at the global level.”

HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum congratulated the winners of the current edition, wishing them to continue this bid in spreading their useful experiences and improving their educational environments.

The sixth edition of the UNESCO-Hamdan Teacher’s Prize is an exceptional session because of COVID-19 where the jury conducted the assessments electronically. In this event, three projects were announced which are – School Transformation Journey of the Egyptian – Educate Me Foundation, which is the first award for an Arab country throughout the history of the award and reflects the seriousness of Arab participation and the bigger role they will play in future editions.

The next project was Apps for Good of the Brazilian Centre of Digital Inclusion and the third project was the Connected Schools that belongs to Telefonica Vivo Foundation of Portugal.

After the felicitation there was a video that highlighted the three projects in supporting the education sector and scaling up teacher’s performance in these countries. The event also witnessed the launch of a knowledge platform that belongs to the international team of teachers, which is a platform funded by Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation For Distinguished Academic Performance to increase the efficiency of teachers and provide a sustainable force of knowledge so that they gain more knowledge and expertise in the educational field as per the best international parameters.

Discussions

On the side-lines of the event a discussion panel was held for winners to highlight their vision, views and plans to share their experiences of their home countries to the world. In this panel the panellists expressed their readiness to transform their experiences to other concerned organisations to propagate knowledge and increase awareness about up-scaling teachers and equipping them with the right skills to contribute in excess of education for everyone across the world.

There was also a panel discussion held for the first ten participants in the world where they highlighted their experiences and unique projects. Participants also expressed their will to participate in the next edition with enhanced projects to be able to win and create a pioneering education experience globally,

Participation

Hamdan-UNESCO received 197 applications from all over the world including government, semi-governments and NGOs that all work to increase the performance of the teachers to enhance education. There were 41 participants from Latin America and Caribbean, 20 from Europe and North America, 58 from Asia and Pacific Ocean and 41 from Arab countries and 37 from Africa.

UNESCO-Hamdan Teacher’s Prize that aims to reward outstanding practices and efforts to improve teachers’ performance was established in 2008 under directives of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum to felicitate distinguished practices and efforts to increase the performance of teachers. This has now become a global award that targets all clusters across the world.

This prize aims to support and encourage practitioners to increase performance and efficiency of teachers so that we implement the goals of education for all which is one of the main priorities for UNESCO. Since the launch of the first edition in 2009  until now, the prize supports to advance education and up-skill education calibres and felicitate educational practitioners from all over the world.