Embracing diversity: British teacher who learned 35 languages crowned 'world's best'

Andria Zafirakou receives award during a star-studded Oscar-style ceremony in Dubai

A teacher, who decided to learn 35 languages to greet pupils from different backgrounds at her deprived inner city school in United Kingdom's Brent, has been named the best teacher in the world.

Andria Zafirakou, was chosen from thousands of applicants around the world for her work with migrant children at Alperton Community School in the British town.

The 39-year-old teacher won the prestigious fourth annual Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize worth one million dollars.

She received her award during a star-studded Oscar-style ceremony in Dubai hosted by Trevor Noah of the ‘Daily Show’ on Sunday.

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The award honours one exceptional teacher who has made a significant contribution to the profession every year.

The arts and textile teacher beat around 30,000 applicants around the world to win the highly-competitive prize.

Andria’s school is located in one of the poorest areas of the UK, and many pupils come from crowded homes shared with several families.

The borough also has one of the highest murder rates in the country.



Canadian teacher Maggie MacDonnell won the prize last year, for her dedicated work with Inuit indigenous students in a remote Arctic village.

During the award ceremony in Dubai, Indian actress Priyanka Chopra and Hollywood star Charlize Theron were also present this year.

In her acceptance speech, she said schools should be ‘safe havens’ and called for better recognition for the value that arts subjects provide.

PHOTO COURTESY: DAILYMAIL

In order to build a community within the school, she learned the greeting of 35 languages spoken by her pupils, so she could communicate with them and their parents at the gates.

These include Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil, Portuguese, Somali, Arabic, Romanian, Polish, Urdu and Italian.

For the annual Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize, the judges shortlisted her after hearing about how she helped out the families in her diverse community.

Zafirakou said, “If you have somebody who can connect with you and appreciate your background, then that's special.”

She believes this helps break down barriers and allows families to engage more in the school community.

A spokesperson for the prize said: “Andria has gone against the grain, taking the time to understand student lives beyond school by visiting their homes, riding with them on the bus and sometimes standing at the school gates with police officers to welcome pupils as they arrive at the start of the school day.

“She has also learned the basic hello-and-goodbye greetings in many of the 35 languages spoken at her school, including Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil and Portuguese, to break down the barriers and crucially help in beginning to establish relationships with their parents, many of whom do not speak English.”

Her colleagues also credit her with helping the school to win a number of awards and boost pupil performance.

Miss Zafirakou said: “By getting pupils to open up about their home lives, I discovered that many of my students come from crowded homes where multiple families share a single property.”

She continued, “In fact it's often so crowded and noisy I've had students tell me they have to do their homework in the bathroom, just to grab a few moments alone so they can concentrate. I also found that some were being forced to play truant to cook meals in the allocated time slot they were permitted to use their shared home kitchen.”

“Others could not participate in extracurricular activities after school because they had to take on parental responsibilities like collecting their brothers and sisters from other schools.”

“Discovering all this prompted me to organise additional provision within the school day and often at weekends to help students have the opportunity to progress. This included giving them access to a quiet place to do their art work, as well as time to participate in extracurricular activities,” she added.

This article originally appeared on Daily Mail.