Pakistani teacher among ‘10 Best Teachers in the World’

Gilgit: Salima Begum, a Pakistani teacher born in a village faraway from Gilgit-Baltistan, has made it to the top 10 finalists of Global Teacher Prize 2017.

The Global Teacher Prize is a one million dollar award for a brilliant and outstanding teacher who has made an exceptional contribution to the profession.

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Salima is going up against the qualifiers from Jamaica, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Kenya and China for the US $1 million reward.

However, her own education has been ruined due to the lack of resources, she strongly believes in students ‘constructing’ meaning for themselves via information they receive, and holds that classroom activities should correspond intimately to real-life situations.

Presently, she teaches in Elementary College for Women in Gilgit-Baltistan.

According to the information about her bio posted on Global Teacher Prize website

“During her entire career, she has contributed to teacher training, training over 7,000 teachers across the province, and 8,000 more across the country via education reform programme.”

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has recognized her contribution to their Teacher Education project, and she has also published large number of research articles.

Her leadership has made her the head teacher of her school, and under her guidance the aspirants have performed exceptionally well in official exams, resulting in an increase in registration in her school.

Salima has adopted the method of developing students’ local wisdom and to make the aspirants brainstorm about their contribution to society along with their knowledge.

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The development of ethical, moral and social values in her students has always been at the top of her priority list.

For instance, she designed and implemented an environmental project along with her children and the local community, to produce organic fertilizers which was a great success, said website.