Global Teacher Prize 2027 ($1,000,000 prize)

Deadline: October 12, 2026

Applications are invited for the Global Teacher Prize 2027 – a US $1 million award presented to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession. The Global Teacher Prize serves to underline the importance of educators and the fact that, throughout the world, their efforts deserve to be recognised and celebrated. It seeks to acknowledge the impacts of the very best teachers – not only on their students but on the communities around them.

This year, more educators than ever before are eligible to enter. As part of the Prize’s next chapter, eligibility has been broadened to include digital educators reaching students online, leaders of education programmes, and teachers working in refugee and other non-formal settings — alongside classroom teachers around the world.

Prize

The Prize will be paid to the winner (or, in the event of death, his personal representatives or beneficiary(ies), as applicable) by VF in equal annual instalments of US$100,000 over a period of ten (10) years, subject to any tax or other withholding required under applicable law.

Eligibility

Open to educators of any nationality and in any country, subject to local laws, who have been working in the education of students aged four to eighteen for a minimum of 5 years.

Eligible candidates include classroom teachers in state and independent schools; Early Years teachers working to a recognised curriculum; teachers in non-formal education settings, for example teachers in refugee education; and digital educators whose teaching reaches students through video, or other published formats with ongoing cohorts.

Also eligible are founders or leaders of education programmes whose own work is the design, direction, and scaling of structured learning that reaches students aged four to eighteen — including non-formal and community-based programmes delivered through a network of centres, facilitators, or volunteers. Part-time, contract, and self-employed educators are eligible on the same basis as full-time staff.

What every eligible candidate shares, whatever the setting, is direct responsibility for the learning of children and young people — in a classroom, through a digital platform, or by designing and leading an education programme.

Candidates whose role is purely administrative or managerial, without a continuing personal hand in the design and practice of teaching, are not eligible. Teachers in further or higher education (18+) are NOT eligible.

Selection Criteria

Effective instructional practice: Employing effective practices that are replicable and scalable, and that influence the quality of education locally, nationally, or globally.

Innovative instructional practice: Employing innovative practices that address the particular challenges of the school, community, country, platform, or learner population, with sufficient evidence to suggest they could be effective in addressing such challenges in new ways.

Demonstrable learning outcomes: Achieving evidenced student learning outcomes — measured through assessment, longitudinal progress, structured platform data, or independent testimony — that can be attributed to the candidate’s work, or, where applicable, to the aggregate outcomes of the education programme they designed and direct.

Impact beyond the immediate teaching setting: Impact in the community, profession, or wider field beyond the candidate’s immediate classroom, platform, or cohort, providing distinguished models of excellence for others.

Education for global citizenship and peace: Helping students become global citizens through a values-based education that equips them to live, work, and engage with people from many different nationalities, cultures, faiths, and worldviews — and to constructively navigate, resolve, and where appropriate prevent disagreements and promote peace.

Strengthening the teaching profession: Helping to raise the standard of teaching — through mentorship of colleagues, public sharing of practice, contribution to teacher education, or any work that helps other educators overcome the challenges they face.

Recognition: Recognition of the candidate’s work by governments, national teaching organisations, school leaders, peers, parents, pupils, regulatory or professional bodies, and— for digital educators — by the platforms, institutions, or learning communities within which they teach.

Application

Click here to apply

Click here to nominate

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For more information, visit Global Teacher Prize .