What Does It Take to Be a World's Best Teacher?

Georgian teacher Vladimer (Lado) Apkhazava is celebrated worldwide as one of the world’s best fifty teachers. Lado was born in the village of Nigvziani in the Lanchkhuti municipality where he grew up attending the public schools in his municipality. He decided to become a teacher after school but he could not attend teacher training classes because the slots at the faculty were “sold” in advance during that period. Apkhazava managed to get a Bachelor of Science degree in economics but upon his graduation, he was allotted some hours of teaching by the Orthodox Church school. This would be remembered as Vladimer Apkhazava’s first steps in the teaching journey. Lado has 18 cumulative years of experience as a teacher with nine of those years spent in the teaching of the history of religion and another nine years for the teaching of civic education.

Lado Apkhazava’s teaching method stands out hence his recognition as a “global teacher”; a recognition that is truly deserving. However, that is not the only reason why Lado is referenced as one of the best teachers around the world. The village Chibati, is known to be one of the poorest villages in the entire Guria region. The parents of most students have had to move to foreign countries for work and financial support for their families from far away. As a result, many of Vladimer Apkhazava’s students miss breakfast in the morning, and sometimes the school has to call an ambulance to manage starving children. Many of the students subsequently gave up their studies and to Turkey in search of jobs. Despite the difficult situation, Lado helped most of his pupils to pursue higher education opportunities and he helped them to build a better life through his approach and selfless service to the school. In fact, nobody was surprised that the sum of 10 000 GEL (approx. 4000$), which was awarded to Apkhazava for the National Award of the best teacher in 2017, was fully utilized for the school and the well-being of pupils.

If awarded the Global Teacher Prize, Vladimer would lend his support to schools in other regions of Georgia to help them acquire modern technology and foreign books. He is even prepared to personally deliver educational resources to these schools. The funds he would get could also be used to better prepare poor students to apply for state grants for further education. Vladimer has also identified the lack of cafeteria in schools and the absence of this important facility affects students’ learning. To solve this lack, these schools need proper funding. Interestingly, Vladimer also has his sights set on equipping 26 schools in his region with greenhouse farming.

To make this plan a reality, the jury for the Global Teacher Prize will need to name Vladimer (Lado) Apkhazava among the ten finalists on February 21, with the overall winner set to be announced on March 24. In the 5-year span of the global Teacher Prize project, no male teacher has ever emerged as a winner because the statistics of male teacher nominees, pales in comparison to that of female teachers. Although, being nominated among the fifty best teachers in the world is considered a big feat for each teacher ever nominated. Each nominee and finalist will be given a badge that identifies them as “global teachers”, while the top ten finalists will be invited to participate in various activities, as they become world ambassadors.

We interviewed Vladimer (Lado) Apkhazava personally about the competition’s stages and his unique teaching method that has made his track record and success peculiar:

How did you get to know that you were among the best teachers in the world?

I was at school with my students and colleagues, when we received a letter via e-mail. It was a very exciting moment which, my pupils greeted with ovations. My colleagues were happy too and, I was very happy with this story but I could not really picture what was happening to me then.

What do you think is the main determining factor that led to your success? I mean towards meeting the selection criteria.

The Teachers’ Global Award Competition has been held for the last 5 years already. Its purpose is to promote teachers not only in Georgia, but also around the world. Before I sent an application form, I had received the National Prize of the best teacher in 2017. This competition is supported by various NGOs, and they formed a national coalition but any teacher can look up the Global Teacher Prize’s website and submit their application independently. It’s just hard to achieve success without the national coalition’s support. Before participating in the competition, I attended a Global Forum in Dubai, which was a great experience for me; I was familiar with inner rules and after that I sent the application form, which was received successfully, and I appeared among the fifty best teachers.

Now they will select ten best teachers from amongst the fifty, so there are additional questions I am currently working on. I’m doing everything to get to the top ten.

More specifically, how has the process been? What questions did they ask and how did you answer?

I answered up to seventeen questions. One of the questions was: What do you dream about and what will the world gain if Georgia wins? I answered that Georgia is a sovereign state. We have our identity, we have our alphabet, and the Georgian culture and folklore is distinct from others and so on. I also spoke about Georgian dance, songs, nature and, Georgian hospitality. I also emphasized the problem of occupation: it is a very regrettable situation for twenty percent of our country to be occupied by foreign bodies. We never stop talking about this problem in my municipality and for this, we created an Occupation Museum within which we have already implemented more than twenty projects. We have had many interesting guests, including ambassadors of the US and other European countries. Another question was related to the teaching method, and I answered that I lacked the resources for the study and sometimes I get the waste material from the waste mesh which, I clean and use.

If you can be specific, what waste items did you use as a study resource?

A storage trunk - I cleaned it with my pupils, painted it, and now this trunk performs an important function in school because it ensures that the pupils are informed. You know there is the outdated form of spreading information, i.e., the use of the information board that no one reads. When I started to put up flyers and brochures in the trunk, I realized that the information is read by every of the students. For example, tomorrow we have a very interesting visitor, I have already put up that information in the trunk and when the children sees it, it is going to be very interesting for them. Then, everyone shares this information and the school is informed. In the past, I conducted an experiment where, I made a statement on the news board that during the break, free sweets will be distributed in the yard, no one came because no one had read it.

As you already know, it is an amazing feat to be listed among the fifty best teachers in the world. Apart from this interesting example, can you tell us about the method that brought you worldwide attention and success?

Let me cite a valid example. Suppose I want to teach children democracy, the texts contained in the textbooks may be forgotten overtime therefore, it is important to use some myths that can make the child remember the concept throughout their lifetime. I’ve used cabbage, and its leaves as comparison to democracy i.e., I use it to show that different sectors are closely linked to each other and have a bigger nucleus called democracy. If you ask an average student in my school about democracy, they will point at the cabbage as a symbol of democracy. On the cabbage, we stick small flags, which usually contains about thirty things, five of which guarantees an engaged civil society. An adult may not be able to pick out the five most important issues out of this cabbage and this is why we discuss each flag. Finally, we will pick out all the other flags until we are left with five which are: democracy, free media, freedom of speech, fair elections, and cooperation between sectors, which is a clear example referenced from our use of the cabbage with a lot of leafs packed together cohesively and in cooperation to form one big nucleus.

Do you cooperate with the Ministry of Education in order to provide innovative projects? Also, did you receive any offers this direction?

The Ministry of Education picked interest in our project “The Democratic Revolution”, which has been successfully implemented in my school for 4 years already. This project promotes communication between school children and school administrators and it teaches them how to act with “laws” as in the normal state, with a legislative body in place and so on. However, the Ministry of Education may not be able to implement this project in all schools and after considering other pros and cons, I realized that the system may not work in schools located in the capital city because they do not have a perception of the community. E.g. a pupil studying in Vake district, but resident in another district, which is very common by the way, will not be able to perceive the community’s status and why he should be responsible for the community.

Have you thought about the need for an education reform?

Yes. I’m one of the teachers who realized that there was a low level of communication in my school and through the Democratic Revolution, we’ve been able to increase the quality of communication. At my school for instance, everyone discusses what’s wrong, what needs to be improved, the pupils also have their initiatives, which is very good. As for the education reform, I think if we have more decentralization that will be very good. I liked the presentations held by the Ministry of Education, where they showed us what they are going to do but it should be documented, because it needs to be readable.

Future plans now, in what directions do you think your career would continue given the new reality before you?

I will stay as just a teacher. I am not interested in becoming a head of school or administration. I prefer to teach and to be with pupils. When I became a recipient of the National Award, I had several job offers from many parts of the country including from the capital Tbilisi, but I decided to remain where I had started projects and where I am contributing to its quality development. I cooperate with many schools in the Guria region, and I am a coordinator and the Chairman of the board at the Civic Education Forum in the region. I am very happy with all that, although I do not earn a high salary.