SPARK Soweto kids celebrating their win. Picture: X./@ClaysonMonyela
SPARK School Soweto has been named the World’s Best School for Community Collaboration 2023.
The announcement was made by T4 Education this week.
This honour comes after several rounds of judging, going against some of the world’s best educational facilities.
T4 Education said the winners of the five World’s Best School Prizes were chosen by an independent vote of an expert Judging Academy based on rigorous criteria.
“This year’s winners share a $250,000 (about R4 million) prize, their stories are celebrated across all corners of the world, and they receive a global platform to transform education and change lives,” T4 said.
SPARK Soweto, an independent, partially government-funded kindergarten and primary school in Johannesburg, South Africa, has become a catalyst for change for its disadvantaged community that was once symbolic of the struggle against apartheid.
The school launched a number of community initiatives to help address the challenges of its surrounding area, such as its Environmental Stewardship programme, which involved cleaning the surrounding areas and erecting permanent concrete bins to curb waste pollution. This helped instil environmental responsibility and stewardship in the community.
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Institución Educativa Municipal Montessori sede San Francisco in Colombia won the World’s Best School Prize for Environmental Action while the Riverside School in India won the World’s Best School Prize for Innovation.
Other winners included the Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School which won the World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity. And EEMTI Joaquim Bastos Gonçalves in Brazil won the World’s Best School Prize for Supporting Healthy Lives.
In addition, a new Community Choice Award was presented this year to Escola Municipal Professor Edson Pisani in Brazil after it won the most votes for all the World’s Best School Prizes finalists in a Public Vote.
It will now receive membership to T4 Education’s new Best School to Work programme, an independent, evidence-based mechanism to certify schools for their culture and help them transform their working environment to attract and retain the best teachers.
Vikas Pota, founder of T4 Education and the World’s Best School Prizes, congratulated SPARK Soweto.
“My deepest congratulations to SPARK Soweto in South Africa. Educators across the world should look to the shining example of your school in the difference you have made to so many lives. And governments must look to the trailblazing work you have done as they seek answers to the great challenges we face today. Where you lead, they must follow.
“This tremendous moment has been made possible by the leadership, vision and culture your school has fostered and it brings me great pride to bestow upon you the World’s Best School Prize for Community Collaboration 202,” said Pota.
The five World’s Best School Prizes was founded last year by T4 Education in collaboration with Accenture, American Express, and the Lemann Foundation.
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