Mansour Al Mansour from Prince Saud bin Jalawi School in Saudi Arabia has been named winner of the Global Teacher Prize for 2025 in recognition of his strategic vision and unwavering belief in his students' potential, and for building an inclusive and innovative learning environment. India’s own Mohammad Imran Khan Mewati made it all the way to the top 10 finalists.
The US $1 million prize is presented to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession. Mansour was selected from over 5,000 nominations and applications from 89 countries around the world.
The teacher from Saudi Arabia is the ninth educator to take home the esteemed prize. Previous winners include: Sister Zeph from Pakistan, Keisha Thorpe from the United States, Ranjitsinh Disale from India, Peter Tabichi from Kenya, Andria Zafirakou from the United Kingdom, Maggie MacDonnell from Canada, Hanan Al Hroub from Palestine and Nancie Atwell from the United States.
Mansour’s teaching philosophy revolves around teaching his students important life skills like finding happiness and sustainability. He aims to meet individual student needs, whilst also actively engaging their families in their learning. Through project-based learning, he connects his lessons to real-world issues such as climate change, financial literacy, and social responsibility.
Beyond the classroom, Mansour has launched charitable initiatives, volunteer programs, and support networks for orphans, prisoners, and underprivileged families. His work in rehabilitation programs has helped individuals reintegrate into society, while his students have collectively contributed over 5,000 volunteer hours.
Mansour is also a prolific author of over 20 educational books and a respected speaker at international conferences. He has trained hundreds of educators, published best practices, and championed innovative teaching methodologies across the Gulf region.
India has a proud tradition in the Global Teacher Prize, with several educators making the top 50 and top 10 lists over the years and primary school teacher Ranjitsinh Disale winning in 2020. There was more good news at this month’s ceremony as Mohammad Imran Khan Mewati – who teaches in Rajasthan's Sanskrit Education Department – made the final 10.
'He has devoted over 2 decades to transforming education in rural India,’ the Global Teacher Prize announcement reads. ‘Born into a farming family of modest means, Imran's commitment to teaching began early when, as a ninth grader, he started tutoring children to support his family's income. Inspired by the lack of educational resources and infrastructure in his primary school, he resolved to dedicate his career to addressing these challenges.’
[Image: YouTube/@GlobalTeacherPrizeGTP]
Imran’s focus has been on making learning engaging and accessible; he taught himself web development so he could also create educational content in Hindi with offline compatibility, and his more than 100 education apps have clocked up millions of installs across 50 countries. And it’s not just the classroom where he’s having an impact.
‘He has been instrumental in addressing systemic challenges in rural schools, such as high absenteeism, gender-based educational disparities, and poor infrastructure. Through innovative approaches like the peer-teaching method in multi-grade classrooms and group-based project learning, he has empowered students to become active participants in their education,’ the Global Teacher Prize shares.
‘His initiatives, like LetUsTalkEducation, played an important role during Covid-19 lockdown to train thousands of teachers for online teaching. His projects include teaching students about climate change, creating science models, developing a Miyawaki garden with 200 plants on the school campus, establishing a school library, and water conservation math activity.’
The ‘Devvani’ he developed during the COVID-19 pandemic supported online learning for Sanskrit students and teachers and today has 60,000 users, and his PRASHAST app is being used for disability screening in schools, benefitting millions of students so far. He has also led fundraising campaigns for school renovations.
The GEMS Education Global Teacher Prize is a Varkey Foundation initiative, organised in collaboration with UNESCO. It is open to current teachers spending at least 10 hours per week teaching children aged between 5 and 18 years old.
Since its launch, the prize has received over 100,000 applications and nominations from around the world. You can read more about the top 10 and shortlisted top 50 finalists for 2025 here.
