A High school teacher from Keriko Secondary School, Njoro, Nakuru County is now a celebrity after he made it to the final global list of the top 10 best teachers for the Varkey Foundation.
Peter Tabichi, a former Egerton University student, is now a Mathematics and Physics teacher at Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School.
He has been nominated for the $1million Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2019.
The 36-year-old, who has been a teacher for 12 years, said he decided to apply for the competition after a friend tipped him.
But he emerged in the top 10 final list out of a total of 10,000 other competitors from 179 countries.
“It is unbelievable, God-given and a great honour, I was aiming at gaining experience on technology and modern teaching methods. But I learned a lot through the application. I did not expect to win or emerge anywhere among the top 10 finalists. I just wanted the experience,” he said.
Speaking on Peter's success, Varkey Foundation said his hard work will go a long way after turning lives around in a school with only one computer, poor internet, and a student-teacher ratio of 58:1.
“His dedication, hard work and passionate belief in his student’s talent have led his poorly-resourced school in remote rural Kenya to emerge victorious after taking on the country’s best schools in national science competitions,” Varkey Foundation said.
Apart from his classroom work, the teacher also serves the community by teaching them new farming methods to address food insecurity in the famine-prone region.
“I trained the villagers on alternative ways of growing vegetables in gardens. I started peace clubs to unite seven different tribes in our school following the 2007 [post-election violence] that led to killings in Nakuru,” he said.