2 Ukrainian teachers make the list of world's 50 best teachers

Artur Proidakov and Liudmyla Tabolina, both from Ukraine, made the list of the world’s top teachers, Global Teacher Prize 2023.

Artur Proidakov, a Ukrainian language and literature teacher, won the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine in 2021. Proidakov is a native of Kadiivka in Luhansk Oblast, from which he had to flee in 2014 after it was occupied by Russian forces.

Proidakov launched a Ukrainian literature course as part of the All-Ukrainian Online School.

 

Photo: Global Teacher Prize

During the full-scale invasion, he created a Rozmovliai (Speak) online course for everyone who wants to learn Ukrainian.

Proidakov said that being included in the ranking will not change his life, and he intends to continue doing his job. He did, however, offer advice to his colleagues:

"Try to make every lesson exciting. Our country’s future depends on your work with children. Don’t shy away from responsibility. Don’t shy away from interacting with your students. We can do our job here while our defenders on the front are protecting us. We have to do our job as well as we possibly can," he stressed.

 

Artur Proidakov

Photo: Global Teacher Prize

Liudmyla Tabolina, also a Ukrainian language and literature teacher, is the finalist of the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine 2019.

She was working at a school in Kharkiv when the full-scale invasion started. For the first four months of the war, until public transport resumed its operation in the city, Tabolina would walk the 11 kilometres from her home to the school.

During Russian attacks on Kharkiv, the school where Tabolina was teaching became a humanitarian aid hub, where the residents of destroyed buildings could find shelter.

Tabolina currently teaches in Kyiv.

 

Liudmyla Tabolina

Photo: Global Teacher Prize

"I can sum up my feelings with one word: devotion. Devotion to myself, to education, to other teachers, and to Ukraine. My mission is to make sure Ukraine doesn’t become a newsflash in the global newsfeed. I will continue feeling proud of our educators and popularising our educational approaches wherever I am," Tabolina said.

Last year, the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine honoured the courage of Ukrainian teachers in the face of the full-scale war.

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