TEHRAN – Soraya Motaharnia, an Iranian teacher, has been placed among the top 10 nominees for the Global Teacher Prize 2021.

Motaharnia, an outstanding teacher of mathematics, Persian language, art, science, and theology, has been praised in Iran for helping the most vulnerable students in rural parts of the country.

She helps students in need of medical treatment and multiple special surgeries and provides financial assistance to hundreds of poor students.

Motaharnia, who has been teaching for 30 years, says that studying, caring for the weak, and wanting to play a role in promoting her society as three major forces have consistently pushed her forward throughout her life, namely, studying, taking care of the weak, and the desire to play a role in promoting her society.

Shortly after graduating from college, she was assigned a teaching post in a remote village near Sanandaj, the capital of western Kordestan Province. It was the start of an endless journey of teaching and helping poor students in different locations in his home province and beyond.

Her own parents’ encouragement motivated her to establish a charity, helping 1,100 students who had medical and educational problems and providing jobs for women with marriage difficulties and divorce. Her caring crusade has extended to collecting money for earthquake victims in Kermanshah province and flood-stricken people in Lorestan province.

She believes her biggest achievement was decreasing the number of school dropouts to near zero. A string of awards, including being declared the best teacher in Iran for two consecutive years, have followed the acclaim for all her efforts. 

The Global Teacher Prize, now in its seventh year and organized by the Varkey Foundation in partnership with UNESCO, aims to recognize outstanding teachers around the world and has attracted for the current year more than 8,000 nominations and nominations from 121 countries, with a prize of $1 million.

The Prize was set up to recognize one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession as well as to shine a spotlight on the important role teachers play in society.

FB/MG