For Linah Anyango, a teacher at Changamwe Secondary School, teaching was never her childhood ambition. She says she pursued a degree in Education just to please her parents because that was what they could afford to pay for.
However her passion for the profession grew by leaps and bounds, with time and experience.
Anyango says in her first five years into the teaching profession, she did not feel she was achieving much or enjoying herself, since teaching was one of the lowest paying jobs in the country.
Her ideology about teaching struck a turning point when she was posted to a secondary school where the students were marginalized and had very low self-esteem.
“The boys were caught up in drugs and gangs, while a number of girls were over-burdened with domestic chores and also suffered sexual exploitation,” she recalls, “These factors contributed to high rates of absenteeism and drop-out, especially among the girls. Parent did not want to take their children to the school, and there was also a stereotype that students from this school could not achieve much in life because they came from poor families.”
Anyango would empathize with the students and decided the only way to make meaningful change would be to use her role as a teacher to make a positive impact on their lives.
“Since girls were performing poorly in sciences, I started the Girls in STEM club to inspire them take up STEM courses and careers after high school,” she says. To connect with her students more generally, she also started a cultural music club, which enabled them to open up, share and appreciate each other’s cultures.
This according to the ardent teacher boosted many of the pupils’ self-esteem, helping them believe in themselves and consequently leading to reduced absenteeism.
Over time, she shifted her focus from improving grades to developing the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that would help students thrive in life after school.
Technology became an integral part of lessons, as it boosted engagement, helped students become better problem-solvers, and improved their communication skills.
Anyango’s school subsequently presented two girl’s teams in the National Science Fair where one team was selected to represent the country in the ESKOM Fair in South Africa, where they presented their work to President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Having trained and coached more than 200 teachers from nearby schools on ICT Infusion, Microsoft recently also selected Linah as a Microsoft Educator Expert and Trainer.
With the Global Teacher Prize funds, Linah would set up SHTEAM (Science, Humanities, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) innovation hubs in eight regions of Kenya, where students would be mentored to convert their ideas into projects that can solve real-world problems.
Today, the Biology and Chemistry teacher, has been included in the top 50 shortlist for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2020 in partnership with UNESCO.
In the short listing, Anyango was selected from over 12,000 nominations and applications from over 140 countries around the world.
The top 50 shortlisted teachers are narrowed down to ten finalist teachers by a Prize Committee, with that result announced in June 2020. The winner will then be chosen from these ten finalists by the Global Teacher Prize Academy. All ten finalists will be invited to London for the Award ceremony at the Natural History Museum on Monday 12 October 2020, where the winner will be announced live on stage.
Now in its sixth year, the Sh 100 million award is the largest prize of its kind and was last year won by Kenyan science teacher Peter Tabichi.
