Mansour al-Mansour, a Saudi educator renowned for his charitable efforts and work with prisoners, was awarded the $1 million Global Teacher Prize on Thursday. He received the prestigious honor at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, an annual event attended by global leaders. Al-Mansour, a teacher at the Prince Saud bin Jalawi School in al-Ahsa, is also an author and has been deeply involved in community service. His initiatives include a program that provided air conditioning maintenance during the intense summer heat in Saudi Arabia. He has also worked extensively with orphans and plans to use the prize to establish a school for them.
“People often show sympathy for orphans, offering them food and water, but education is often overlooked,” al-Mansour shared after receiving the award from Dubai’s Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Maktoum. “Through research, I discovered that orphans tend to be less educated, and I wanted to address this issue.”
The Global Teacher Prize is presented by the Varkey Foundation, which was founded by Sunny Varkey. Varkey is also the founder of the for-profit GEMS Education, a company that operates numerous schools across Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE.
Al-Mansour is the ninth recipient of the Global Teacher Prize, which the Varkey Foundation has been awarding since 2015. He is the first teacher from the Gulf Arab region to receive the honor.
He shared that his current project, called “Life Skills,” focuses on enrolling students to teach them essential skills such as dialogue, communication, and financial literacy. One of his significant initiatives has been a financial awareness program for the underprivileged, which helped many students understand business concepts, with some even starting their own businesses.
Additionally, Al-Mansour is dedicated to working with prisoners, teaching them reading and writing skills. His lessons have led to several inmates having their sentences reduced.
Previous winners of the Global Teacher Prize include a Kenyan teacher from a rural village who donated most of his earnings to the poor, a Palestinian primary school teacher who instilled values of non-violence in her students, and a Canadian educator who taught Inuit students in a remote Arctic village.
GEMS Education, also known as Global Education Management Systems, is one of the largest private school operators globally and is estimated to be worth billions. Its growth has mirrored that of Dubai, where private schools are the only option for foreign children who contribute to the city’s economy.
Later this year, GEMS plans to open a new school catering to the children of ultra-wealthy families flocking to the rapidly growing city. The Gems School of Research and Innovation in Dubai will feature state-of-the-art facilities, including a robotics lab, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and a football pitch that can also serve as a helipad. Tuition fees at this prestigious school will range from $31,000 for younger students in pre-K and kindergarten to $56,000 for high school seniors.