Peter Tabichi: The Kenyan Science Teacher Who Won the Global Teacher Prize

Recognised by Nkuzify as Patron Teacher of the Year.

World Teachers' Day
Happy Teachers' Day from all of us at Nkuzify.

At Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in Pwani village, Nakuru County, there are fifty-eight pupils for every teacher, one desktop computer and an internet connection that often fails.

About 95 percent of the pupils come from poor families, nearly a third are orphans or have only one parent, and many go without food at home.

In 2018 these pupils beat some of the best schools in Kenya at the national science fair. The teacher who believed they could was Peter Tabichi.

A friar who teaches

Peter Tabichi is a science teacher and a Franciscan brother. He has said his father, who was also a teacher, inspired him to teach. He gives away about 80 percent of his monthly income to help the poor in his community, including his own pupils. The school sits in a semi-arid part of the Rift Valley where drought is common, and where drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and early marriage threaten pupils' schooling. He teaches knowing what stands between his pupils and the classroom.

Science with almost nothing

With one computer, he still used technology in about 80 percent of his lessons. He started a talent nurturing club and expanded the school's Science Club, and helped pupils design research projects good enough that 60 percent now qualify for national competitions. His pupils earned an award from the Royal Society of Chemistry for a project that made electricity from local plants, and a team qualified for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Arizona. He also taught local people how to grow crops that survive famine.

The prize

In March 2019 he won the Global Teacher Prize, worth one million dollars, at a ceremony in Dubai where actor Hugh Jackman announced the winner. He was the first teacher from Africa to win it, chosen from ten finalists. He said the prize did not recognise him, but the young people of the continent: I am only here because of what my students have achieved.

Why Nkuzify celebrates him

Tabichi teaches in a school with almost nothing, and he gives away most of what he earns, yet his pupils are winning. That is what belief does in a classroom. He reminds us that what a teacher expects of a child often decides what the child achieves, which is why Nkuzify honours him.

Read more in Global Patrons of Teaching, or make a free Thank You card for your own teacher.